


Chimaera Program

by BlackWolf2Dragoon



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Blood and Violence, Canon: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Character Death, Chimaera sex, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-25
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-06 10:26:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 44,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/734617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackWolf2Dragoon/pseuds/BlackWolf2Dragoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a breakthrough came into making a chimaera capable of reproducing, the scientists jumped at the chance for making a biological army for the Fuhrer, per orders of Colonel Grande's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Project RM22

**Author's Note:**

> Posting this story here mostly because of it being so explicit, fanfiction is being a bit of a mother hen, apparently writing porn is a horrible thing. So here we are, since this website likes porn, I bring the full explicit version here, no censoring here at all, the full gory details unlike fanfiction's. I hope you guys enjoy it! If you don't like the full explicit version of this and prefer the censored version, go here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7224098/1/Chimaera-Program

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Information given about the first ever successful talking Chimaera Kelsen Tucker has managed to create. Edward Elric is kidnapped from his own home and is then turned into a chimaera as well and thus begins the story of Raven and Edward.

Subject RM22

_Entry 101_

_Codename RAVEN was brought into our research lab. ADONIS was also another failure, making our counted failures to fourteen. For every subject, we got the same reaction, both brains couldn’t combine and simply compressed, eventually imploding. We need RAVEN to be successful._

_Further adjustments will be made towards the transmutation circle to ensure RAVEN’s survival. We shall try a different animal to try to suit the late Major Roy Mustang’s personality. Perhaps a dog- no, better, a wolf! One_ canis lupis (1) _of Drachma to be compressed and combined with one_ homo sapien _of Amestris. We’re not sure how this is going to turn out. We can only hope that it won’t end in disaster._

_-Dr Kelsen Tucker_

“Well, Doctor, you’ve certainly outdone yourself this time.”

The praise wasn’t familiar to the thirty year old Doctor Kelsen Tucker, except from his wife. He wasn’t expecting great praise, he was just that desperate for a job, no matter how bad it seemed.

He just seemed a bit out of his depth with this, however.

When they said that what they were doing would be bending the rules, mayhap a tad bit, he didn’t think they meant holding an illegal organization in a supposedly abandoned laboratory  right next door to a prison and with parts of the military already in on this secret.

Dr Tucker looked down at his creation. At least he was using his talent for something he believed would be useful in the future. Indeed, he smiled, looking down at his finished result. Sitting there was clearly what used to be a man of twenty and a few years, he must’ve been raven haired as a mop of hair sat on his head, though seemed to dissolve into fur, almost a mane, down his spine where it joined short patches of fur that darkened his usually pale look. His back legs looked painful, twitching every now and then, stuck between being long and human and rounded, shorter dog legs. He was trying to sit up, but his back legs just weren’t functioning. His arms seemed to be fine, but he was useless unless Tucker could repair his back legs. It hadn’t gone completely to plan, but he would get better over time. Yes, he was sure of it.

The Doctor raised his glasses higher up his nose as they started slipping. Picking up a clipboard holding what was previously the human’s information, he studied it carefully.

“Subject RM22, codename RAVEN(2), twenty two years of age, weight before transformation 66kg (3). Former name Major Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist.” Tucker put the clipboard aside on a nearby table, putting some plastic gloves on. Safety precaution, of course.

Walking up to his creation, as if it were Frankenstein, he feared it but he had never seen anything more beautiful or appreciative before. This was his best work. Crouching, he raised the head of his new-born chimaera, lifting it by its chin. The chimaera didn’t protest, raising its head, curious. Its eyes were the same raven colour as its hair, but its nose was different along with its face. The face was more pushed outwards into a wolf like face, whilst still retaining a human like appearance, but the dog nose gave away it not being human, the whiskers, whilst difficult to see, gave it away also. Its ears had completely changed; it was fluffy though it was hard to see the fur that made it so, pointed and moving near constantly, curious and slightly frightened by all the noises. They were placed on the side of his head where his human ears should’ve been, which really damaged their usefulness, but still fifty times better than human hearing. Kel heard a thump, then several more in unison. Looking to behind the former Roy Mustang, he spotted a tail, a wolf tail, but it was lacking some fur and was a more sickly grey colour instead of the salt grey it should’ve been.

_Maybe it’s happy,_ Tucker thought. Dogs wag their tails when they are happy, maybe the same applied to wolves. But Roy’s face looked anything but happy, in fact, it just seemed blank, but its mouth twitched as if it was trying to do the human equivalent of appearing happy. Instead, it opened his mouth, a long tongue, longer then a human’s, came out as it panted. Just like a dog. The human teeth were gone, filled with daggers of a wolf’s mouth.

“Hello.” Doctor Tucker began, calmly. He created this chimaera to be able to speak the human tongue, keep the alchemy it had been taught whilst human and work for the military better than any other soldier ever could. If he could, he would like the chimaera to disguise itself as the human it used to be, but able to turn back into its chimaera form when needed in a fight. It was tough, but he would manage it, if he wanted his family to survive, he would.

The chimaera heard him, as its ears twitched, trying to place what the human meant. Its tongue disappeared back into its mouth, closing, its tail stopped. Then it sniffed, its head leaning towards the human. It didn’t seem bothered that he smelt slightly like death, it could smell faint grass, which the wolf wanted to smell more than anything. The tail started again, but slower than before, as if it was uncertain.

This wasn’t really the response Tucker hoped for.

“Doctor Tucker.” The strict voice cut in. Kel looked up at Colonel Grande, the Ironblood Alchemist. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Kel nodded, hearing the hidden threat, before he turned back to the chimaera, which had pulled its lips as if to snarl at the Colonel, but no sound came out. “Hey.” The chimaera ceased what it was doing and turned back to Tucker. It seemed to perk up slightly, tail wagging slightly and tilted its head.

Tucker licked his lips, nervous, needing the chimaera to respond, before he tried. “My name is Kel Tucker.”

The chimaera tilted its head a bit more, but it seemed to understand as it tilted its head the other way before straightening its head. It didn’t make a verbal reply, however.

Tucker tried again. “Can you say my name? Can you talk?”

The chimaera’s ears twitched, surprised at the request, a brief human reaction. Its head twitched several times, as if in pain, but then it surprised both Doctor and officer. “K-k…Kel. Too…kar.” It was croaky, like a frog was doing the talking and higher pitched than his old human voice, mixed with the higher pitch of a wolf’s howl. This was a good result.

“Well, Tucker, looks like you’ll be doing your family some good after all.” The Ironblood Alchemist put a hand on Kel’s shoulder, unnerving, but it was a good sign nonetheless.

The former Roy Mustang tensed, his body not quite accepting his form and in obvious pain. A nerve trapped as he dropped his head slightly, jerking forward and back. His body was in bad shape. Outside, it seemed it was just his legs that weren’t in working order, but inside laid the real problem. The human’s organs were usually spread a bit more, but a wolf’s was close together, getting stuck between the two caused many problems.

Tucker was concerned; it wouldn’t do well for their first successful chimaera to die or be in pain. He was considerate, but to look through the military’s point of view, he would say that the pain would distract it from concentrating and would make it more difficult for it to be of much value.

“I’m not quite satisfied.”

That’s when Grande stopped, startled. “Excuse me?”

Tucker looked towards the soldier. “He’s obviously in pain.” When Grande was about to interrupt him, he said afterwards, quickly; “It’ll distract him from his goals, it would make controlling him harder. Wouldn’t it make sense to create him in perfect condition so we expect only the best and no errors?”

Grande knew Tucker had a point, therefore, he permitted it. Having the authority, Kel picked up Mustang, being quite heavy as he lay limp almost completely, and put him onto the examination table. Tucker was risking a lot using the x-ray tubes they currently had. (4) The doctor wasn’t sure how the chimaera would react towards the x-ray, which tended to feel cold as it works, so he was using the utmost caution. Whilst holding the chimaera’s leg down, gently enough so the chimaera wouldn’t lash out, he brought the tube to the beast’s leg. It was startled by the coldness as it begun its magic, but it seemed too weak to really lash out. Tucker looked at the screen.

The leg looked bad. The areas connecting the femur and the patella seemed to be off angle, a wolf’s femur was smaller than a human’s, thus causing the problem. It could be that the body just needed to adjust, but otherwise, he would have to think of a way to readjust the leg himself.

Writing down the problems, he moved to check the internal organs of the chimaera. It didn’t look as bad as he had thought. The heart was perfectly fitted between the two lungs that were big and healthy, maybe slightly larger than a humans’, but in working order. The liver seemed on the slightly large side, but it didn’t seem to be a problem. The intestines were smaller than they were meant to be, but that also didn’t appear to be a problem. The only problem Tucker was worried about was the heart muscles. Whilst a wolf did have great stamina, some humans did not. If he overworked his heart, he could go into cardiac arrest, which wouldn’t suit the military very well. He would keep close eye and test the chimaera’s stamina just to be on the safe side.

But something caught Tucker by surprise. When checking the sexual organs, which included all and only the male organs as planned, they seemed to be in working order too. _How could this be?_ Tucker had never heard of a successful chimaera infancy. Double checking, Tucker was able to confirm that this chimaera would be able to successfully impregnate another. _This could be the biggest alchemic discovery ever!_ Tucker couldn’t wait to truly try and take a sperm count.

Turning around, he called his team, “Harold, get a cup, I don’t care about the size, just make sure it’s made of glass!”

Grande did not expect this. “Doctor, what is the meaning of this?”

When Tucker turned around, the Colonel was caught by surprise. He had never seen Tucker this excited before. What was going on through that doctor’s mind? Or had he finally turned mad? “Colonel, I’ve just made a discovery and I must investigate it further!”

Grande tapped his foot, clearly impatient and unhappy. “Explain, doctor.”

Kel brought his glasses back up his nose, feeling them falling down again. “Colonel, I’ve had a look at RAVEN, it seems that he’s still productive.” Now that brought a face Tucker had never seen on Grande’s face. “If we can keep RAVEN productive and make another productive chimaera, then we should be able to breed and get infant chimaeras. Think of it!”

And Grande could imagine it. A whole army of alchemy using chimaeras, though RAVEN couldn’t use alchemy yet, he trusted that the scientists would be able to get him to remember how to use it without revealing too much of his past. RAVEN wasn’t perfect yet, but they weren’t far from getting him perfect. All they needed was to research harder and teach the chimaera, then they could begin the breeding program. Fuhrer King Bradley would be pleased.

“Here’s the cup, sir!” An assistant of Kel’s came running with the requested glass cup. Luckily, they had the sense to get one without scratches, obviously knowing what it is for.

“Thank you; now get the prototype microscope ready.”

“But sir-”

“No excuses just get to it!” So eager, so excited, so exhilarated was the doctor that his patience shrunk unnaturally. Taking the cup, Tucker placed it beside the chimaera, which was currently panting and looking around, curious, currently oblivious of pain. It seemed oblivious to the obvious excitement of the scientists and only bothered to turn its attention back on its alpha when he put the cup down. It was curious as to the point and purpose of this suspicious looking object. It could vaguely remember something like this, but he just couldn’t remember anything. It turned away, it was too entirely busy sniffing and investigating all the different smells and sounds. He could hear growling, snarling, howling and sounds of rage not too far away, but he couldn’t define their mood. They were angry, tired, upset, hungry, scared and lonely. It confused it, very much so.

The smells were different too. It could smell very weird smells he just couldn’t describe, yet its mind seemed to yell _lab_ at the far back of its mind. It didn’t know where that voice came from, but it sounded suspiciously like its own… _his_ own. It – _he-_ shook _his_ head. He was confused and thinking gave him a headache, so he stopped bothering, not liking the pain at all.

The chimaera turned back towards its alpha, its creator, curious as to what he was doing. He seemed to be whispering words, although he wasn’t sure what he was saying, but the mood was obvious, calm. It kept himself calm, like his creator wanted, and he almost didn’t notice Tucker pumping his member like a cow’s udder until he was already close to releasing. Confused, the chimaera gave a high pitch whine, biting Tucker’s arm only slightly enough to leave marks, but not bleed, as he released into the plastic cup. Tucker winced, but it was merely a warning bite, _don’t do that again._ Hopefully, he wouldn’t need to; it was enough semen for him to do more research into possible chimaera breeding.

Grande had gotten into position to slap the chimaera, but the chimaera hadn’t even flinched. Kel saw this and stopped the Colonel quickly.

“No, we can’t harm him! Anything you do could make his health deteriorate; even too much stress could kill him. We have to be very gentle with him if we want him to live.” It was more than caring about his creation that had him quickly order the Colonel not to do what he was about to, but excitement. This had never been recorded before and if it was really truly possible to do what he thinks he could... then he had to go for it, there could never be another chance if he let it slip!

But he had the problem of getting his chimaera to let go of his arm. Being a wolf, it had to be disciplined in a way that it knows it’s wrong to do what he had, though it was just a warning, he still shouldn’t make a habit of it. So, Tucker slightly tapped the head of the chimaera, startling it but not hurting it in any way. When the RAVEN looked at him in a confused state, he let it know what it had done wrong.

“Don’t bite, it’s bad to bite. Biting could hurt someone.” The chimaera seemed to understand and lowered its head, whining slightly in apology. Tucker ruffled his patch of hair that nearly covered his eyes that he was forgiven. He looked back at Iron Blood. “He seems quite obedient so far, it seems he sees me as the alpha, but it won’t be easy to get him to be as compliant to everyone else.”

Grande huffed and crossed his arms. “As long as you can do it, but about this breeding. I can’t see how the Fuhrer won’t agree to let you go through with it.”

That brightened Tucker’s day. The scientist inside of him probably wouldn’t let him sleep until he had at least tested his theory, and for days onwards he probably wouldn’t get a decent night of sleep because he would be so excited about his newest discovery. “Thank you, sir!” But Tucker hit a problem. He needed another chimaera and not one of those other failed experiments he had tried and kept alive for protection. He needed a newer chimaera; he needed to make another just like Mustang and hopefully with fewer problems than Mustang. He almost got RAVEN right, it was just his legs that was a big problem, then there was the problem of switching back and forth between his normal form and his chimaera form. “Colonel, I request for another subject, if we’re going to make the best out of RAVEN’s reproductive abilities, I need a newer chimaera with less problems than my failed experiments. Every new chimaera I make I want to see if RAVEN would be interested in.”

Grande considered it, but he knew it wasn’t going to be simply as easy as grabbing any chimaera and hoping the two would fuck each other. Wolves were very picky about their mates, they had to be worthy, they were much like swans, they remain with their mate for life and never swerve from their mate until death do them part. Grande nodded. “Fine, every new chimaera you make with prisoners we bring, we want you to try your best to get that chimaera to breed. But isn’t this going to make things difficult, most prisoners are male, won’t that make things harder?”

But Tucker already had a plan. “No, bring in all that are male and female. If I can mix a male human with a female chimaera, I might be able to make a chimaera that is both male and female, a hermaphrodite chimaera.” Kel was sure it would work. It would take more work, but it would make the job easier to find someone worthy of being RAVEN’s mate.

Grande nodded, then allowed the scientist/alchemist to check more on RAVEN. The only problem being his legs would probably be no problem to fix if he did it right. The only big problem now was finding a suitable mate for him.

...

“Raven, do you remember that biting is not tolerated?”

Raven did know that, but Blackheart had started it first. He couldn’t stand Blackheart, always ordering him to do things that were completely stupid. He couldn’t stand it and he couldn’t stand him either.

“Raven knows, but Raven doesn’t like Blackheart. Raven doesn’t want to stay with him anymore.” When Raven grew agitated, or was sulking, he talked in third person about himself, it was a habit Tucker had yet to break.

Raven had been under Tucker’s care for almost three years and he was improving a lot. He was able to freely change from human to his chimaera form anytime he wished (though he always kept his teeth sharp as a wolves’, because he felt better with it like that.) His speech had improved tremendously, he could pass as human from his speech alone, he could use his usual big vocabulary he tended to have and need and he had no problem understanding what anyone else was saying. He was even starting to learn alchemy again, and he learnt very quickly. He had made a few comments on “I remember that!” and it alarmed some of the scientists that maybe he was remembering his past life, but it wasn’t so. He hadn’t remembered a thing about his life as a person, but he remembered his alchemy. That’s what was important to them.

The only problem was finding Raven’s mate. He had been paired with many chimaera’s, Kel had lost count how many, but the chimaera couldn’t stand any of them. Male, female or hermaphrodite, the chimaera refused them all. He knew it was going to be hard, but two years and no progress at all on that field? He had checked, and confirmed that Raven was still fully capable of impregnating a female or hermaphrodite, but he just couldn’t accept anyone. It shouldn’t have been surprising; Major Roy Mustang had been the same way, back when he was human. He couldn’t stand people being close to him, he was a very private person and he trusted very few. Turns out the chimaera was very much the same as the late Roy Mustang.

Grande dropped by for a regular check on how Raven was coping, aka was he fucking anyone yet and can be blow up a building yet? The answer to both was no, Raven couldn’t stand anyone longer than an hour and he couldn’t blow up a building yet. He could light a fire, but not deliver an explosion quite yet.

Raven hadn’t taken a liking to Grande. When Kel asked why, Raven replied that he smelt bad, like death. He wasn’t surprised, the Colonel seemed to spend a lot of time talking to Bradley, Raven gave the same response about the Fuhrer and the three other visitors that regularly visited who called themselves Lust, Gluttony and Envy. Raven didn’t like either of them, especially Envy, whilst he didn’t seem too badly making friends with Gluttony, ignoring the smell of him. Probably because both had the mental capacity of animals, Kel pondered at the time. He knew what they were, homunculi, but he didn’t say a word about it. He continued to work like the dog he was, protecting his family and son, who was now living by himself as a nineteen year old. They knew he worked into researching chimaeras, but they just didn’t know how far into it or how much the corruption inside the military needed it.

“Tucker, has Raven improved?” Translation; has he mated yet?

Tucker shook his head. “He and Blackheart got physical, but not the physical we are after, Colonel.” That title was about to change soon, he was going to be promoted to a Brigadier General soon because of his help with the chimaeras, because of Tucker. He couldn’t complain, he was getting a pay rise for his job and his wife had never been happier with extra money to spend.

Grande wasn’t happy, but there was nothing he could do. Raven spoke up quickly, feeling a need to defend himself. “Blackheart started it, called Raven fat.” Raven always did pride in his looks, it was an odd thing for a chimaera, but he had. It was more common to see Raven licking himself in all manner of places to keep himself clean than find him rolling around in the mud outside. A couple of times, Tucker brought Raven over to his house, since his son aspired to become like him, he wasn’t allowed to bring his son into the lab, but it seemed he was able to bring Raven to Shou. Shou loved to see Raven and Raven seemed to tolerate Shou, as long as he never touched his tail. His tail had grown into better condition once he transmuted it better, it was simply missing fur and it recovered at a remarkable rate. His legs were the same; he was a true miracle to chimaeras.

The response Raven gave wasn’t really what Grande was hoping, but at least he saw the reason behind it. He was about to reply, when a military official ran into the lab, shouting for Iron Blood’s attention.  “What is it?”

“We’ve managed to locate Hoenheim’s son, as you requested!”

This was the best news Grande had heard all day. To have the skilled son of Hoenheim under their orders, fighting with them, it would be marvellous! “Well? Where is he?”

“We’ve discovered that there is another, sir!” Another?

“Care to elaborate, Constable?”

“There were two sons of Hoenheim, Edward and Alphonse Elric.” Elric? Not Light, then? “They adopted the maiden name of their mother to avoid detection, they both live in a house alone in Resembool. Their father hasn’t been found and their mother is believed to be deceased.” It was entirely too easy, but it took a lot of effort to find them.

“Very well, who is the eldest?”

“That’s Edward Elric, sir.”

“Bring the eldest, we haven’t a need for the younger one, but make sure he doesn’t follow.”

“Sir!” With a salute, the Constable was gone.

Tucker looked up, interested. “You’ve been tracking the sons of Hoenheim of Light?” He was expecting it, but he didn’t know that Grande was put in charge to finding them.

Grande looked at Tucker, not answering directly, but directly enough. “When the Elric arrives, you’ll be able to transmute him into a chimaera, won’t you?” Kel nodded, he could, easily. “If we can get him to bend to our will, it will be very beneficial to the Fuhrer, if you can do this, you will receive a promotion and a pay rise and I’ll finally be able to get my own promotion quicker.” Tucker didn’t refuse, his wife was finally back on good terms with him and his family was very well supported as ever from what used to be a poor background. He couldn’t let that be ruined, the military had been kind to his family, though not always to him, it didn’t matter, so long his family was well provided.

Grande left soon after, but Raven was curious. He was as curious as a child sometimes. “Who Edward Elric?” he asked. Tucker turned to see what he was doing, glad he wasn’t naked at least and wearing his hospital robe, but he looked like he was about to lick between his legs.

“Raven, I told you not to do that in public.”

Raven huffed and lowered his leg off the table he propped it on, Tucker hadn’t seen anything, but if he let Raven go further...

“Who’s Edward Elric?” Raven pressed again.

Tucker turned to look at the used to be Roy Mustang, who had been broken and now bent at the military’s will after many years of careful planning. It was a shame he had to do the same to the Elric brother who would be arriving soon. But how was he going to answer Roy without giving anything away?

“Edward... he’s like you, only he’s lost and needs help.” It was a lie, but the chimaera wouldn’t know that.

Raven tilted his head, then smiled slightly. “I like Edward.”

Tucker blinked. “You do? You haven’t met him yet.”

“No.” Raven shook his head. “I like Edward, name, Edward.” It was a strange comment, but Tucker didn’t pick much more at it. Instead, he stood up.

“Alright, Raven. You need to go back to your den whilst I get ready to help Edward when he arrives. Can you be good?”

Raven nodded before he got up and walked, like a human, thankfully, towards his ‘den’ as he had dubbed it. Tucker brought out a file with information about Edward Elric based on his personality, he had to get the personality of the animal and the human close, otherwise it could result in a bi-polar chimaera. That was something nobody wanted to deal with. A chimaera that was either bi-polar or had Multiple Personality Disorder, depending on how much their personalities differ. From what the file said, Edward was stubborn, fiery and had a real bad temper when one came to calling him short, so it seemed. He grew violent sometimes and he seemed to eat a lot, even though he was rather a short boy. This was gathered from the spies and school reports when he bothered to attend school, but it seemed both brothers had dropped out when their mother passed away.

Tucker walked onwards to the cages where he kept all his animal specimens, bringing the file with him, to try to find the perfect combination to Edward Elric. Some sort of cat? No, Edward wasn’t lazy and most cats seemed to just lounge about and do very little. A dog wouldn’t do, Edward wasn’t obedient in the least.

Tucker stopped in front of a cage. A female Wolverine. Small but terrifying animal, nicknamed Glutton and very well known for its very adventurous and stubborn attitudes. Afraid of nothing and capable of taking down prey much larger than itself, giving itself the nickname Glutton. Tucker smiled. It was perfect.

...

Edward heard the crash first. Being the bigger brother, he told Alphonse to hide away and he would deal with it. Alphonse didn’t like it, but he trusted his brother. There wasn’t a reason for burglars to barge in, they had nothing left, so Edward assumed that after a bit of threatening and a bit of searching around, they would leave them be. They hadn’t been burgled before, but what other reason was there to raid the house of Hoenheim of Light?

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, chalk and wooden plank at the ready, he turned quickly to spot to his surprise, a military official. What the fuck were the military doing here? Looking for their father? Couldn’t they just knock on the door?

“Are you Edward Elric?” The military man asked. That confused Edward even more; it wasn’t Hoenheim but _him_ they asked for.

“Yeah, but Hoenheim isn’t here, so you can go away.” Ed replied, keeping the plank up but not using it. The chalk was ready, he wasn’t good at attacking alchemy, but he had ready briefly about it in the event he needed to protect his brother. He wasn’t sure why the military were here but whatever the reason, he didn’t like it.

“We’re not here for Hoenheim.” Another military official, who now stood to the side of Edward, uncomfortably close. “We need you to come with us.”

“What for?”

“It’s strictly military business.”

“Then I’m saying no, now get lost.” The officials didn’t take that answer well. One drew out a gun, whilst a few others (how many were there?) came closer, some of those also drawing out guns.

“It’s not a request, Edward Elric, it’s an order.”

“I’m not letting you touch my brother!”

“We’re not here for your brother, Mr Elric, we’re simply here with you, now come with us.”

But Edward still refused. “He’s my brother, I need to look after him and I’m not letting you take me away from him.” Whilst he had been talking, he had drawn a transmutation on the wall with his chalk, to which he now activated. The wall threw itself out with a flash of blue alchemical light, thrusting into the bodies of a few military officials. Edward hadn’t meant to aim so precisely, but that was exactly what happened. Panicking, he ran up the stairs, taking the plank with him. The remaining officials yelled out and tried to hurry along, but because the thrown out spike blocked the easiest way up the stairs, they had to clamber over the railing.

Edward ran back to Alphonse, to warn him about the people. “Alphonse! The military!” He hid under the bed with his brother, then tried to explain in a way Alphonse would understand. “They wanted me to go with them, I don’t know why, but they were going to take me away from you, Al! I didn’t mean to, but I transmuted the wall and I killed somebody, but they were going to take me away, Al!” Alphonse could barely pick up what his brother was saying, he was in hysterics. “They want to take me away, but I can’t let them, Al, I can’t. You’re all I have left, I have to stay with you, I promised mom! They don’t want dad, they want me and I’m scared!” Edward shut up quickly when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs quickly. He tried to quiet his sobs, but it was difficult. He backed right up to the wall under the bed, pushing Alphonse back as he did so, like a mother protecting her cub.

“Where did he go? Did you see where he went?”

“Little bastard will pay for trying to mess with us.”

“Wait, he went this way, the plank is here!” Edward cursed himself for dropping it. Two military officials entered the room, their rifles drawn and their boots sounding like death’s footsteps, they searched the room.

“Check under the bed, they have to be here somewhere.” Now Edward shook, ready to run out and bite the people, he always had sharp teeth, near fangs, and he didn’t have time to draw a transmutation circle as a hand came under the bed. Quickly, Edward reached and bit the hand as hard as he could. The man he had taken a bite out of screamed, but Edward refused to let go, even when he brought his arm all the way out from under the bed, taking Edward with him. Gravity made it difficult to hang on and he eventually let go, trying to run out of the room.

The male he had bitten was quick to act. Taking his rifle, he slammed it down upon the head of the young Elric, enough to make him black out for a second or two. He fell to the floor, and Alphonse couldn’t help but shout for his brother, blowing his cover.

“Brother!” He rushed out from under cover to aid his older brother, only to be stopped by the other military official. He grabbed his arm, but when Alphonse turned to do the same thing, the military official karate chopped on the young boy’s neck, hitting that one nerve that knocks a person out for, whilst not long, long enough for them to escape.

“Wish I’d have thought of that.” His partner commented, just as Edward groaned and brought a hand to his head. Turning around, he spotted his brother unconscious on the floor.

“Alphonse!” He tried to get up quickly, to run to his brother’s aid, but he hadn’t by the time the military man came up to him and repeating the process on the older Elric as he had with the younger one.

Looking at his partner, he asked; “Should I carry the pipsqueak and you get rid of the evidence?” He looked down at his partner’s hand, which was bleeding now. “That looks quite bad.”

The officer nodded, grateful. “Hurts like a bitch, I really don’t want to spend a moment more with that brat. Just take him to Tucker.”

When Alphonse came to, all that was left as evidence that what happened had indeed happened was that the wall was still stuck out like Edward had told him and the blood was on the floor, but there were no bodies. And Edward wasn’t there.

Panicking, he ran out the house and headed to his best friend’s home, the home of the Rockbells. Winry’s parents had been killed in the war in Ishbal three years ago and Winry was still recovering from that. Alphonse knew what it was like to lose a parent, but he never imagined the loss of a brother, your other half.

He knocked on the door frantically, even as Pinako shouted that she was coming, he couldn’t stop. It was like he took an overdose of caffeine, adrenaline not yet left his body. When Pinako opened the door, she gasped.

“Brother’s gone!”

...

When Edward came to, the first thing he heard were voices. Yelling voices. It made his headache worse, and he would love nothing more than to tell them to shut up, but he quickly remembered what happened. He opened his eyes quickly, seeing that he wasn’t strapped down at all, but in fact inside a cage big enough for a normal adult to stand up fully inside and walk around a bit, How did he get in here? He sat up to see on the other side a pair of men arguing. The words came slowly, but he could catch them.

“I’ve never transmuted a child before! It could go very wrong and so many things could happen, he could die!”

“Tucker, you agreed to this, so do as you are ordered!” He heard snarling and looking around the arguing pair, he spotted a strange bear like creature in a cage similar to his, scratching at the bars and biting at them, trying to get out. It wasn’t scared, but it was definitely not happy. He looked down at the floor and his eyes widened as he saw the transmutation circle. He had read about this in his father’s research and he knew what the circle did. Combined two things together. It was human transmutation, in turning a human into a chimaera. The fact that he was on one side and the bear thing on the other...

He knew what was to happen. He couldn’t let it happen, Alphonse was looking for him, he had to get out and-

“Tucker, you remember what I said if you refused to do as ordered?” The big bloke suddenly said, catching Edward’s attention. Orders? He was part of the military? He wore the uniform and had the State Alchemist’s watch. The other guy, Tucker, had the same but didn’t have a star on his military outfit, so that meant he was of lower rank. “Your family is at stake here, Tucker, you do as you’re told or else you know your family will be torn apart.”

Tucker knew that, but he had never transmuted a child before, he never had the heart to do it. He had done to plenty of people, men who probably deserved it, but not innocent children! He had the wolverine ready to transmute but he never expected the Elric to be a child, he just knew it was the son of Hoenheim and he knew Hoenheim had lived a long time. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Grande snorted. “Do it in the next fifteen minutes, or your family will be torn apart.” Then he left without another word. Tucker sighed, took a look at both the wolverine, then at Edward and was surprised to see that he was awake.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen.” Though, pissed off and scared as he was, Edward knew. He lost his family, after all, and it was very painful still after all this time. This man had the choice to keep his family alive, Edward could hardly blame him. He’d do the same if it meant keeping Alphonse and his mother alive. He tried to smile, but it came out sad nonetheless.

“Don’t worry about it, my family is dead now.” He believed that, Alphonse wasn’t in sight, so he couldn’t confirm that he was alive. Last he saw, Alphonse was on the floor unconscious, he was either still out cold or he was dead. “Just do it, keep your family alive.”

Tucker nodded, since the boy seemed determined to do what he could for Tucker to keep his own family alive, he didn’t argue. He hadn’t the heart to. Before he activated the transmutation circle, he managed to say sorry to the human boy one last time, before the screaming took over.

...

Raven heard the scream. It broke him out of his nap and he wasn’t impressed. Usually, he would just ignore it and go back to sleep, but there was something about that scream that had Raven worried. It wasn’t the first time he heard screaming, he usually ignored it, but his curiosity pegged him on. Forgetting that his master had told him to stay in his den, he got up, turning into his chimaera form whilst doing so, forgetting he had to take his hospital gown off whilst doing so and ripping it in the process, leaving him a naked werewolf and walked on all fours down the corridor. He hadn’t quite memorized the area yet, but he could smell his master’s scent. So he followed that.

Standing on two legs, he’d tower over people, but on all fours he was the same size as any other wolf, though his muscles made it a bit more awkward to walk and run like a wolf. Nobody was in the corridors, though that wasn’t unheard of, but he could smell that a stranger had been by. It wasn’t a bad smell, but it definitely caught Raven’s attention. It smelt almost... _wolverine,_ a voice in his head told him, the voice of the wolf. The wolf had seen wolverine before and whilst they weren’t horrible creatures, they were not to be messed with. From catching that scent, Raven should’ve just backed away and gone back to his den, but he knew that this wasn’t what caused the scream. It was something else.

Still curious, he moved onwards, following the scent of his master which was stronger than that of the Wolverine. He reached his master’s lab, the one he was told to never go inside. He hated to go against his master’s wishes, but he just _had_ to know who screamed. Taking a deep breath through his nose, he looked through the open door of the lab.

He remembered it, he woke up there the first time his master found him, he said that was where he fixed his chimaera friends. He told him that they got spooked easily, so he didn’t want Raven inside in case he scared them. Raven thought it understandable, but now he could smell something rotten, something taboo. Raven frowned, or would if he had the facial muscles to do such a thing. Taboo? He wasn’t sure what that meant or where it came from, but he didn’t ponder on it for long. His master was there, but there was something else as well, a weird creature. It was rather small, had a skunk patch almost of white and dark golden fur everywhere else. It was a wolverine, but not quite one, for it was larger than any wolverine Raven had ever met (the only one, but some in his mind were smaller than the wolverine he saw now was) though not by much and he had longer arms than a normal wolverine would have, they almost more resembled human arms like his arms did, they weren’t paws but claws, though the chimaera appeared to have pads whilst Raven hadn’t on his hands, he also had a golden patch of fur on its head and seemed to make a plait down the chimaera’s back, he was lying on his belly currently like he fainted that way. The claws were long and thick and the tail was bushy, bushier than Raven’s own tail. The face was more wolverine than human, almost no human was left in the face, though it was slightly more rounded and shorter than a wolverine’s, but there was almost no way to tell the difference and the teeth, sharp and dangerous.

Raven was fascinated, he’d never met a creature like that before, and he seemed to be in slight trouble. Raven didn’t realise that his claws must’ve made noise upon the tiled floor until he heard his master call out his name.

Bringing his head up, he looked at his master, who seemed to disapprove of what he did, but didn’t actually scald him for breaking his promise. His ears twitch, ears that became normal and moved to the top of his head when turning into his chimaera form, as he heard the chimaera snarl. Kel looked quickly, hearing the chimaera snarl and hushed to try to calm it. It didn’t seem to work, and the chimaera was about ready to leap at the annoying pest that was too close in his personal space when he caught sight of Raven, who was making his way towards the pair. He still snarled, but he quieted down. He recognised the scent of a wolf; they were often his friends, whilst he took what the wolves left, the wolves hunted. When he lost track of the wolves, he simply went to hunt himself. He didn’t bother the wolves and the wolves didn’t bother him. They knew each other by scent and neither would harm the other. After getting close enough to sniff the chimaera, Raven looked up at his master.

“This Edward?” He asked.

Tucker was shocked; Raven actually remembered what he had told him? It was difficult to get Raven to remember things that he didn’t care about or saw no point in, but something about Edward must’ve caught his attention. He had read about both breeds and knew that they lived in the same area, but he had no idea they tolerated each other. They were close family, the wolverine from the weasel family and the wolf from the canine family. Could it be that Raven was actually interested in the late Edward Elric?

Tucker could do nothing but confirm. “Yes, this is Edward.” He looked back at the chimaera on the floor, who was slowly standing up on all fours. He was almost miniature dog sized, just slightly larger, but knowing what this animal was capable of, taking down _whole deer_ and even _bears,_ he really didn’t want to laugh. Instead, he talked calmly to the chimaera. “Hello, Edward, can you hear me?” The chimaera looked up at him, after shaking his fur, before he gave a small nod. “Good, does it hurt anywhere?” The chimaera shook his head, but yawned. It wasn’t surprising that he was tired. Tucker couldn’t help but feel nervous, seeing all those teeth (my, my, what huge teeth you have!) but he shook it off, knowing the wolverine chimaera could smell fear. “Alright, I’ll take you to bed soon, but I have to see one last thing. Can you wait a few minutes longer whilst I check over you?” The wolverine seemed to scowl, it was difficult to tell, but it was clear the chimaera had the human facial muscles to do such a thing, but he nodded anyway.

With a sigh of relief, Tucker went down to pick Edward up, though he seemed extra unhappy about that, snipping at Kel without causing any real damage, just scaring the shit out of the poor alchemist. But Edward shut up once he was put back down again onto the examining table. Tucker checked over his arms, legs and belly, his belly had turned to white blonde fur too and was particularly thick in that area, but he got what he found. So, Edward was still clearly male, but when it came to checking if he had female sexual organs as well, the chimaera was less than impressed. He snapped at Tucker’s arm, telling him he wasn’t allowed there, when Raven poked his head up on the table, standing on his two legs but leaning up on the table like a dog would.

“Master is nice, just let him do stuff and he’ll let you sleep.” Raven tried to reassure the wolverine, and it seemed to work, though Ed really didn’t seem happy about it.

“Thank you, Raven.” Kel always made sure that Raven knew when he was doing right, it was like trying to teach a child again, and Raven’s tail wagged slightly. He lost the ability to really do that, wolves didn’t normally, but every so often, Tucker spotted his tail moving slightly in a happy motion. He put different gloves on and began to check.

It was uncomfortable for Edward, feeling the man’s finger probe his behind, but if what Raven said was true, he’d just have to get it over with. It wasn’t painful, but he definitely wasn’t comfortable with this becoming a common occurrence. He became increasingly uncomfortable when the finger started searching, feeling around inside as if looking for something, or making sure of something. When Tucker was finally satisfied that Edward did indeed have ovaries, he pulled his finger from the uncomfortable chimaera, who almost sighed in relief. So, Edward, so far, was capable of holding a child, so his search told him. That was good news and if Raven grew attached to the young chimaera...

The strangest thing, Edward was of age to breed already. Whilst the old Edward Elric was only nine years old, this new Edward Elric was now at least fifteen in human years. The jump in age must’ve been because the wolverine was quite old for one, she’d have been in at least her second cycle to being able to breed, whilst Edward was a child, but in human terms, only a year or two ready to be able to breed. He was quite wet, which gave Tucker the impression that he was in breeding season either soon, or right now. This was exactly what he had hoped for, but it was getting Raven to like Edward enough that was the trouble, and for Edward to consent, but with him being in breeding season, it wouldn’t be too hard.

Raven nudged Kel’s hand, asking for attention. When Kel looked down at Raven, Raven spoke. “Can Edward share my room? Don’t like Blackheart. Like Edward better.” He suspected as such, plus he didn’t have another room ready for Edward quite yet and the poor chimaera looked exhausted. Transmutations did that to people.

When Kel nodded, Raven tried to smile, but with no human muscles to do that, he instead went to his human form to do the smile. When Kel scowled. “Raven, what did I tell you about changing back into human form _without clothes?_ ”

Raven looked down. “Oh.” _Oh indeed._ He was stark naked, though he wasn’t embarrassed and didn’t see why others would be about it. He was naked whilst a werewolf, why did a human form make a difference?

“Just go back into your wolf form and take Edward to your room and let him sleep.” Raven nodded and did as instructed. He picked Edward up, who didn’t complain for once and walked whilst carrying Edward on his back towards his den.

Whilst Tucker ran for the phone. “Hello, Central headquarters? I need to speak to Colonel Grande, it’s important!”

 

 

 ...

 

Footnotes~

(1) Canis Lupis - Latin and scientific name for wolf.

(2) RAVEN is capitalised like this because it's a codename, but as you notice after a short time, it turns into his real name. Keeping the name Roy is a bit "here I am!" isn't it?

(3) 66kg = 10st 5.5lb = 145.5 pounds

(4) I wiki'd this, because I was sure x-rays didn't REALLY exist in this time. I don't even remember what I found, so I'd just wiki it really.


	2. Operation: Impregnate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed wakes up to face the world as a newly made Chimaera and Raven takes care of him like the good alpha male he is. Meanwhile other chimaeras are escaping the labs and Tucker is trying to train Ed in alchemy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings; There will be heavily described animal sex and sexual exploits in this chapter, I was trying to be as accurate as possible! There is also violence, amputation (sort of) and swearing. There will always be swearing. If you don't like this content, then go visit the fanfiction version where it is censored.

Operation: Impregnate

When Ed woke up again, he woke to see big black eyes watching him. They seemed big, anyhow, but he had always been small, so things enlarged themselves to look bigger than they were. He blinked a few times, yawned a big yawn, giving his guest a full view of his razor sharp teeth, and shook his head a few times before he sat flat on his butt and rubbed his eyes with a paw.

Raven couldn’t help but stare. He was currently his werewolf self, sitting cross-legged by the bed (that took a lot of lessons to get right, but he managed as a way to calm himself down if need be) watching the young chimaera with interest. He wasn’t sure why he was as interested in the chimaera as he was, but he was and he wasn’t going to deny that fact. Perhaps it was the hair, even as he was mashed together with a wolverine, his human hair still stood on top in a warrior’s plait as if that were natural. He looked both deadly and cute, but with his complete defences down, he stood out as more cute.

After waking up to the world, Edward met the eyes of the wolf man. He remembered that his name was Raven, if his memory served him right, but other than that, he knew next to nothing about the chimaera. Ed didn’t feel like dealing with him, still exhausted from doing… whatever it was he was doing before. He couldn’t even remember, he could remember about the weird scientist was doing weird stuff to him, but that’s all he could really remember. Really, he couldn’t be bothered finding out, either.

The pair of the chimaeras stared at each other in awkward silence, neither knowing what to say. Personally, Edward just wanted to sleep more, his body completely exhausted from the earlier transmutation he no longer remembered.

A growl worthy of a bear’s stomach broke the silence. Raven’s ears twitched, then he leaned forward and sniffed, realising that it was Edward’s stomach making the noise. Realising this, he got up on all fours and went to leave.

Ed tilted his head, confused. “Wait.” He hadn’t meant to call out; he didn’t even know where that came from. His voice was surprisingly low, but considering he looked like a miniature care bear only more realistic to what a bear really is, it was hardly surprising. He was the size of a Labrador only a bit smaller and had long but thick arms of muscle and dark fur, whilst his legs seemed more or less human (slightly on the short side and more muscular than normal) with thinning blond fur, as if there were a skin condition there, but still had the paws and claws of a wolverine. He didn’t exactly look that appealing for a pet show if there had been one, with his face wolverine like in the way his nose was big and long and his ears small with a fluffy tail behind for balance, a mix of brown and blond all around his body.

Those were all the details Raven took notice of when he turned back to look in the eyes of the wolverine chimaera. He tilted his head, on all fours awkwardly similarly like a wolf, but his more human arms and legs made it look very uncomfortable, but Raven seemed happy enough. He raised his tail slightly, reasons unknown to Edward, but he kept his eye on the chimaera, just in case. The tail fell back down slowly as Raven licked his lips before he tried to answer in his mix of deep and high voice. In his chimaera form, it was hard to keep his pitch low, because many a wolf’s calls were in high pitches too high for humans to hear, so his voice was mixed with the low howl and high howls of Raven’s. It wasn’t great on his part, but it made him seem all the more powerful, in many of the scientists opinion, not to mention that it freaked people out, those that hadn’t gotten used to it.

“Yeah?” Edward wasn’t completely sure what that meant, but he managed to cipher it from his aching head somewhere in the back of his mind as a question and what it meant.

He fiddled with his paws for a few moments, looking down, whilst Raven waited patiently, as if he had all the time in the world, before he spoke again; “Where you going?” He had to take a second to take in a breath for each word, but he managed it. He wasn’t quite used to talking like Raven was, it had taken a full year to get Raven talking like he was, but Raven didn’t seem to find it surprising that Edward was able to speak so well so quickly already.

Raven stood up on his hind legs, but he was bent over so far that would have any normal human holding their back in pain if they were walking in that position for long. He took a few panting breaths, as if he were in the pain mentioned, or some other kind of pain, before he answered; “You hungry, I get food.” Raven found little point in using proper English, not when Edward would understand the dumbed part better than the normal English he knew he could use. He wasn’t an idiot; he knew it had to be hard on Edward since he could remember being confused and not completely understanding what people were saying. Whilst the others had been the same too, he just couldn’t concentrate on them, just nothing clicked. He had to wonder if Edward was the one missing piece, his mate he was destined to put his whole life into, if he was the one he was going to raise cubs with.

He could smell it; he was confused about Ed first, because he smelt both male and female. A female in breeding season as well, to make it worse. So, he was mostly confused on whether he was going to have to tread carefully around the wolverine or if he was going to try to court him. His mind said to be careful, whilst his more instinctive nature told him to go for it. Even so, he couldn’t just _go for it._ He had to tread carefully, since he was probably confused as hell, though Ed didn’t seem it. Still, Raven was going to be careful around the chimaera, until he was sure the other felt the same.

Ed nodded but didn’t seem to make a move to say anything more. He wasn’t the type to thank people, he just didn’t, but he felt grateful and hoped that Raven could tell he was too. He was still very tired and didn’t feel up to talking much, but he knew he needed the energy. Perhaps Raven could get him a stag, or better a moose, that was his favourite. He knew Raven must like moose too; after all, that was the most popular prey of wolves.

Raven nodded before he turned and left through the door to find some food. He hoped that his alpha brought more deer; he always managed to find the best deer. He didn’t like having to eat some vegetables or fruit, though his alpha always insisted on making him eat it. He didn’t really _hate_ it, it just didn’t feel right. Part of him rebelled against any kind of fruit or veg, whilst the other was happy for it. It gave him a headache, something he had already had enough of.

Raven couldn’t help but look at the other rooms, some had windows, his didn’t but the others did, though he wasn’t quite sure why. One chimaera looked very recently found; it looked to be a mix of human, toad and puffer fish. Raven didn’t dwell on looking at the horrid thing for much longer; he was already bored of it.

The next room held a mix of human and boar chimaera. He looked like he could put up a good fight if he wanted to, but Raven shook his head and moved on quickly. He ate boar too and his alpha told him not to eat any of the chimaeras around the lab, much to his disappointment. Still, he was content with his master’s deer, they were to die for.

Raven stopped quickly when he spotted a group of chimaeras, whilst most of them didn’t look very chimaera like, he knew they were. He recognised them all, especially the lizard like chimaera, who looked more chimaera than the rest of them. Failed attempts he heard they were called, though the lizard chimaera had been very close and probably would have succeeded whatever it was his masters were looking for, but whatever it was, they didn’t have it, so he was told. He recognised each and every one. Roa was part bull, he recognised the slight scent, he hadn’t come across bull often, but it was hard not to come across humans at all back where he had once lived, before his master saved him. Bido was the lizard chimaera, or gecko as his master told him, though he’d never really seen a gecko before. Martel was part snake, any wolf would know what a snake was, he could smell it off her and Dolcetto… he was part dog, he recalled being chased by a hunting dog and escaping with his life, but he also recalled people with dogs following behind them, walking together down a… path? It was hard trying to figure it out, his mind still in tatters, but he was getting better at it, recognising things and some memories. It still wasn’t enough to tell him anything, but he was getting there, slowly but surely.

Raven looked up at them, confused. The group had looked at him with intent, were they planning something? They knew him slightly, but not very well, he didn’t really get along with anyone for very long, but they were behaving differently. Was that the slight smell of fear he could smell? They were more or less human, none looked like real chimaeras, except for Bido and his long tail and bald everywhere, not a patch of hair or fur anywhere, but there were characteristics of their chimaera counterpart in their behaviour. For instance, Dolcetto was extremely loyal and master had told him that there was a big issue of him pissing at water hydrants. Bido liked to eat insects, when most of mankind repelled against even seeing them, let alone eating them. Roa got angry very easily and horns sometimes appeared on the top of his head if angered to the point of losing his common sense. Martel liked to elongate her s’s in speech sometimes and she was extremely flexible but that was sorted when she could pass as double jointed.

Roa was the first to speak, but they always spoke together like a big group, confusing the hell out of Raven in the process; “We’re leaving.”

Next was Dolcetto; “We feel we’re not needed here anymore, this place is dangerous.”

Raven couldn’t understand what they meant, the only danger he felt was if something would fall on him from the desks. Martel walked forward; she was the ‘leader’ almost, so to say. “We’re going to live outside.” Raven knew what that meant. Outside was the code for out of the lab, in the streets with the people. Didn’t they know that outside was dangerous? “It’s too dangerous here, so we’re leaving now whilst we have the chance. Did you want to come with us?”

Raven took those words in. They were asking him to go outside with them? And not return? But what about Edward? He made his choice already before they asked. Raven stood up level to them and shook his head; “I can’t, feel safer here and got Ed to look after.” It was sometimes hard to break the habit of dumbed English. It was easier to speak that way for him.

The other chimaera looked at him, nearly shocked. Bido spoke quickly, he was always impulsive; “Wait, there’s another chimaera put in with you?”

Raven nodded, “Edward is a wolverine. He came yesterday.” The group really did feel sympathy for the wolf chimaera. He was probably the most brainwashed of them all; he was the favourite of all the chimaeras, because he was the first proper successful alchemy using chimaera. Unfortunately for Tucker, he was the only one who was successful, as no alchemy using criminals had been brought in to be transmuted into chimaeras and there weren’t that many chimaeras that survived either. Tucker seemed to be making fewer chimaeras for many reasons. First, his son had taken too much a liking to the chimaeras and was even making some of his own with animals he took from his father’s research. Harmless animals like geckos, snakes and spiders and transmuting them together to make new pets, like a Haider (a cross between a hare and a spider) or a gake (a cross between a gecko and a snake, the last one was a rattlesnake and Tucker didn’t know how his son had handled that thing without being bitten and killed) and it worried Tucker. His son was especially rebellious still and he was determined to live alone, soon to become twenty, it was understandable. Second, the military had found other ways to getting immortal soldiers, but it was at a heavier price that they couldn’t pay always. They had only made three before they called it quits, because it was too high a price and Basque couldn’t afford to lose any more men to making an army that could turn against him or go wrong really easily. Tucker had been able to make one chimaera out of the body of Barry the Chopper, as he was known in the nick, but without a human soul, it was a complete animal like he had expected.

Martel shook her head at the werewolf, who cocked his head, confused; “Raven, have you ever thought of why Tucker puts a chimaera with you all the time and tries to make you like them?”

He blinked a few times at the question. Really, he had, but he thought it was because his master thought he was lonely or that he needed to help the chimaeras get used to the place. That seemed plausible enough, didn’t it? Raven shook his head; “No. You know?”

Martel wasn’t sure she could tell the chimaera. It wasn’t that it would upset the chimaera, it probably would, but she wasn’t sure it was the truth. She had only heard a glimpse of what the scientists were talking about and she couldn’t just tell the chimaera and have him have a rage fit and possible kill others or himself in the process. “I don’t exactly, no.”

Raven didn’t care about that subject anymore, moving to another one quickly, “You leaving today? Without master knowing?”

Dolcetto was the one who answered this time, surprising Raven. He was usually quiet; Roa and Dolcetto were the quiet ones of the group. “It’s for the best, we better get moving now before they realise.”

Martel turned back to Dolcetto and nodded, but looked at Raven one last time to ask; “Are you sure you don’t want to join us?”

Raven didn’t need to think. “No, thank you, but Edward needs me. Gotta stay for Edward.” Martel had nodded in understanding before she turned back to the group and they left quickly, running down the corridor as silent as a snake would slither, and in the vents. Raven wasn’t sure if they wanted him to stay quiet about their escape, but he would try, unless the master asked for it, he couldn’t refuse his master.

He shook his head, forget about them, was what his mind demanded and he listened to it for once. They didn’t concern him, they wanted to go Outside in the first place, it was their own fault if they got hurt badly. Moving on, he managed to find his master in his office like usual. He didn’t bother making a sound, for his master seemed troubled. Tucker held his head in his hands, shoulders down and his glasses were to the side. What was wrong with him, had something gone wrong?

Concerned, Raven moved and sat like a dog to his masters’ side and whined, asking what was wrong. Tucker looked towards Raven, he was almost as tall as he was sitting on his chair, but he smiled regardless and ruffled the top of his head. He was touched that Raven felt concerned about him and he always treated Raven the best, it was hard not to when he cared about him so much. Raven refused to go outside after an incident, however, when they were walking through the streets, a few kids had thrown rocks at Raven for some reason or other and spooked him out. He called outside dangerous and refused to go out anymore, not even to visit Shou. Thus, he stayed inside nearly all of his time, it wasn’t healthy in the least, but perhaps with Edward, there was always hope.

“I’m ok, don’t worry.” Tucker reassured the chimaera, but he didn’t look convinced. Raven tilted his head, asking for more, but not forceful in any way. Tucker shook his head and changed the subject quickly; “Is there something you wanted?”

Raven raised his head, remembering his reason for being here. “Edward is hungry.” Was all he said, but Kel understood what he meant. He got up to escort the chimaera to the giant freezer they had, no chimaera could really be trusted alone with food, especially not one with the mischief that Raven had. The freezer was much held like a butcher kept his meat; it had to be kept healthy and rich, and yes it wasn’t just meat, but carcasses that are kept fresh. Raven had preferred the carcasses so he could chew on them and be entertained, like most carnivores if they had the time. Raven hoped Edward was the same.

“Oh, Raven?” Tucker stopped Raven just before he picked the carcass up. Raven looked up, confused. “I know you don’t like it, but we need to give Edward another name to use Outside.”

He was right, Raven didn’t like it. He growled slightly, but with a cough from Tucker, he shut up quickly. “Why?” He was a bit spiteful when he said it, a lot like a child that had something taken from it and wasn’t being given back.

Tucker sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose, as they started falling; “Now, Raven, you want Edward to be safe, right?” Raven nodded, confused as to where this was going. “Edward was hurt really badly by people and those people know his name, if we use it Outside, the people might recognise him and take him away.” Now _that_ Raven didn’t like, it was audible in his snarl. Tucker waited until Raven had quieted down before he continued. “So, if we called him something else, he would be safer going Outside.”

Raven shook his head. “Edward won’t go Outside.”

Tucker sighed again. “Raven, what if Edward wanted to go outside, would you let him?” Raven wasn’t sure how to answer. It was a bit early thinking about that, wasn’t it? Tucker continued, regardless; “It’s just a safety precaution, you only have to call Edward the codename if you’re Outside, in the lab you can still call him Edward, alright?” Raven didn’t look happy, but he nodded. “Good, we thought of the name Fox.”

Raven thought it was decent, but it was Edward’s choice, after all. “I’ll ask Edward. He chooses.”

Tucker nodded. “Alright, now you take that to Edward whilst I need to get back to work.”

…

Edward woke up with a start. He’d had a dream and not a dry one either. He shook his head and dispelled his thoughts on the matter, but he found it incredibly difficult. He was having troubles coming to terms with being both male and female. He had both the male sexual organ to impregnate a female, yet he had the same female hormones that every wolverine had come summer. He was also worried about how to feed the kits, because he lacked the ability to produce milk to feed them. But his mind wailed in protest in missing the chance to produce and he could almost physically feel his heart being pierced. Very well, he decided, stuff the possible consequences, his mind wanted it and he never thought that far ahead anyway.

His mind made up, Edward got up from the bed, but made sure his tail and arse rubbed against the bed, leaving the clear invitational odour. He was sure Raven would pick it up; he seemed like a good mate, despite being part wolf. Wolverines and wolves had always been decent neighbours; the wolves took down a kill and ate it, the wolverines cleaned up after them. He was sure Raven would understand the scent, he already knew that Raven was interested in him, the way his eyes clouded over and he sniffed the air several times, a sure sign he knew Ed was in season. Raven was strong, heavily built and seemed to show utmost loyalty to those that mattered to him, exactly what Edward needed of a mate. If they could make kits, what would they look like? Would they be part wolverine and wolf with human pieces in between or just be one or the other? Or no human parts at all? Would they be strong like the both of them, or maybe they would plan ahead, like wolves tended to do? How many kits could they make?

Panting slightly, Ed looked around the room for a piece of area that Raven will sure to pass by. There wasn’t much, but beside the door seemed the best bet. Determined, Edward strode towards the door on all fours. Sniffing the door frame, he caught the slight smell of Raven, a clear mark for anyone passing by that this was Raven’s room and nobody was allowed to enter without his permission. Snorting, Edward was soon to fix that. Moving so his back was towards the door frame, Ed lifted his bottom half into the air, his front legs keeping him balanced and his back legs clawing into the door frame either side to make sure he didn’t slip whilst he rubbed his tail and arse on the door frame, spreading his scent over Raven’s. He made sure that Raven’s wouldn’t be completely covered; they didn’t need a territorial fight let alone a fight for a mate to top it off.

He dropped once he was satisfied, but was still worried that Raven might not catch the scent, if the air pushed into the room via an air vent was anything to go by. Ed could feel it blowing softly, rustling his fur. Hm, where else would the air not touch? Looking around the room, Edward’s eyes fell on Raven’s favourite cushion. It was thick and held sand rather than the usual cotton, but that made it able to mould into the shape of the rester. Jumping onto the bed, Edward sniffed it again. The scent was thick of Raven, a clear indication that Raven did sleep in this bed. Ed wasn’t sure why it had covers you could go underneath, didn’t that make you feel trapped? Regardless, Ed knew that Raven would definitely get the message now.

Grinning, he took a pillow and promptly sat on it, wiggling his backside on the pillow for good measure. Lifting the covers with a paw (it was very difficult to grasp, but his teeth helped with grasping) he looked to find nothing in particular; it was simply white like the bed with a few grey hairs of Raven’s when he had been lying under the covers in his wolf form. But, again, Raven’s scent hit him like a wrecking ball. He stiffened, willing his member to calm so he didn’t have to retort to licking.

Giving himself a few seconds, half a minute to be exact, he crawled under the covers, his backside still rubbing against the floor, spreading the scent. He felt rather safe under the covers, nobody would be able to see him and he could easily strike out if something came near without warning. Like being hidden in a log, it was safe and comforting, as well as a good ambush spot. Ed scowled, he didn’t like using ambush, he was a proud creature, strong, he could take anyone down! He didn’t need this sneaking bullshit! Well, it was comforting nonetheless and the area filled with Raven’s scent.

Ed stiffened when he heard the tell-tale steps of Raven heading back, but there was the sound of dragging too. Oh, their food! But Ed hardly felt hungry now, or hungry for food, anyway. He waited until he heard the steps coming into the room.

“Ed?” The concerned low voice of Raven called out, then he heard sniffing. Ed smirked; he knew Raven could smell it, smelling the doorframe where his backside had been mere moments before. He heard a growl, clearly an aroused one from his ears, as he continued to smirk in victory. “Ed?” Raven called again, this time seductively. It wasn’t hard for the low voice to sound seductive; the late Roy Mustang was used to the ladies in his old time, though he was far from a whore. It was something he just knew on instinct rather than knowledge.

Getting an idea, Ed laid down on his side, his tail swishing seductively in invitation to catch Raven’s attention and he put on a horny grin. It didn’t take long for Raven to pull the covers over to find Ed there lying on his side all laid ready, and the _stench._ The smell of Ed in season was obvious, it hit Raven like a bulldozer and he had to keep a hungry growl from escaping. Ed had the grin on that had Raven itching to pull the contrasting wolverine towards him and never let go. Raven was unable to make any facial expressions, unlike Ed, but his eyes told Ed everything, _it was working._ Getting onto the bed, in a more human movement than wolf, Raven leaned down to sniff at Ed’s neck. Ed’s neck was relatively human, slightly thick with muscles for his jaw and with fur, but again little fur like there was a skin condition there, and seemingly was sensitive as he ducked his head to protect his neck.

If Raven could grin, he would. He watched as Edward turned around and lifted his behind in the air, tail up and pushed against his back out of the way from the view. Raven licked his lips to prevent saliva from falling, before he sniffed at Ed’s behind. Ed looked back, wondering about Raven’s hesitance, when he felt the wet appendage enter swiftly and almost forcefully. His eyes glazed over, but he kept strong, keeping still. It wasn’t necessary, being part wolverine, but because he had a rather human build, it was a precaution Raven wanted to take. Saliva would be enough, he knew, his instinct told him.

Once Raven was satisfied, he clambered over Ed, being quite a lot bigger than Edward, and licked the back of Ed’s neck to try to reassure him. Whilst he was doing that, he got his member in the right place, making sure Ed’s tail stayed flat on his back in case it got caught, before he entered quickly. Ed stiffened, mostly out of shock, but relaxed quickly with Raven’s reassurances. It wasn’t so bad and that heat was cooling down slightly, but it wasn’t enough. Impatiently, Ed wiggled, then looked up and glared to see Raven looking down upon him with glee in his eyes.

“What wait for?” Ed demanded, growling slightly. He didn’t even care that his voice still sounded comically low compared to his size, his irritant feelings were clear enough. Raven huffed almost, before he pushed further into Edward as requested. Ed growled again, this time it almost broke off as a groan. Breaking his hymens had been slightly painful, but nothing he couldn’t handle. He growled again in annoyance when Raven halted, probably being a worry wart. That was the problem with wolf mating; they always did become worry warts about everything when it came to their mate. Ed pushed back, telling him to get a move on, and so he did.

It lasted less than three minutes, animal mating was always quick and to the point, but being part human had delayed them a bit. Raven made sure to stay inside Ed until he was sure that his sperm had done its duty. He let go of Ed, but curled up beside him, his head lying on Edward’s chest.

Then something came back to him. “Ed?” Edward turned his head to look at him, tilting his head. He looked tired, but not too badly off. “Master says they call you Fox, but I call you Ed. Ok?” It took a while for Ed to understand what he meant but he nodded either way, regardless. Raven smiled, before he looked back at the deer carcass he brought. “Hungry?”

Edward looked to where Raven was looking and eyed the deer carcass. It was exactly the type of food he would’ve had when he was a wolverine, that’s what made him happy! Both the animal and human could eat deer, though the human side protested slightly at the morality of eating already dead food, he was too hungry to listen. He got up and slipped down on the floor on his two legs, his arms weren’t strong enough to take the weight of landing on the floor like normal legs could, and he walked over to sit beside the carcass and began to stuff his face in. Literally.

His teeth were strong enough to crush bones no problem, so the tough skin of dead deer was no challenge for him. It was strange to be sitting cross legged (he had recorded Raven sitting like this, he was a quick learner) and trying to eat with paws that weren’t that capable of grabbing, so he moved to stand on all fours, bending down to eat the food like an animal would. As soon as he spotted Raven making a move towards the deer, however, he stopped and snarled. Raven stopped, looking confusedly at him, when Edward shook his head, bringing an arm to wipe across his mouth.

“This my part, you have top half.” At least Edward was letting him have even a part of it. Wolverines were often very picky and didn’t share, but perhaps the human side loosened him up. Raven nodded and proceeded to his end of the carcass. They both ate together, saying nothing else, but enjoying each other’s company as mates that they knew they were.

…

“Fox, I need to see you for a moment, privately.” Kelsen arrived after their nap from eating their carcass together.  Ed wasn’t amused being woken up before his body said he was ready to wake up and, not surprisingly, he was growling at Tucker.

“Piss off.” Raven couldn’t help but laugh; it was a strange laugh considering wolves couldn’t do it. It was more like a snort with a couple of barks mixed in together. Kel glared at Raven, but Raven merely raised his tail in challenge. Tucker shook his head, before trying to get Ed to wake up again.

“Fox, it’s important.”

“Tired. Go away.” He was harder to handle than a brat; it’s what Tucker had actually expected.

“I’ve got something special for you.”

“Don’t care.” Was what Ed said, but after about fifteen seconds of silence, he raised his head from Raven’s chest (a more or less human chest par the fur, it was almost like a gorilla’s chest, strong six pack the lot, only not as rough or strong, but human feeling.) and quickly asked; “What treat?”

Kel was smirking in the back of his head, people like Ed were predictable. “You’ll have to come and find out.”

Edward still wasn’t sure if he could be bothered to get up to follow him. He felt so _full_ and lazy, but he didn’t like not knowing things. That guy knew something, said he had something for him but wouldn’t let up what. Ed‘s curiosity was flaring, telling him to find out, Raven would still be there. Nodding, Edward pushed himself from Raven’s warm chest and lowered himself on the floor, sitting there and looking up at Tucker with a strange look. It was hard not to laugh, Edward looked just like a lazy bear sitting as he was, his legs stretched out before him, his tail swishing behind him and being held up by his arms to the side. He continued to stare until he scowled.

“Hey.” He broke the silence, still sitting as he was. Until he raised his arms, like he wanted… _you can’t be serious._ “Still tired.”

Tucker sighed, but if he wanted the chimaera to get in the right position to get his human form working again, he had to do as the chimaera asked, even if the chimaera was a bit old for this. He bent down to pick the chimaera up, who was surprisingly light for his size; Tucker could’ve guessed about 35kg (1) probably a bit more. The chimaera wiggled a bit until he could see over Tucker’s shoulder and waited until Kel turned around before waving towards Raven. Raven waved back before he curled back on the bed.

Arriving to his lab where he already had the transmutation circle already drawn on the floor and ready to go the moment Fox was upon the circle, he was crestfallen to see that Envy, for some reason not bothering to shape shift for some reason or other, was standing in the room with Basque Grande beside him.

“ _That’s_ the great Edward, right there?” Envy shouted out, incredulous, then he laughed.

Ed wasn’t amused and snarled, jumping out of the arms of Tucker and before he could stop him, Fox bit down on Envy’s hand he’d left unprotected so hard that the hand was bitten clean off his arm. Envy yelled, being a homunculus didn’t mean he was immune to pain, he wasn’t by far, but where his hand had previously been, red angry sparks grew, like an alchemical reaction. Fox spat the hand out, it tasted horrible, beyond horrid, and he quickly ran behind Tucker like a puppy, not liking how Envy’s hand was reacting at all.

“Why you little-!”

“Calm yourself, Envy!” A voice called, where Edward wasn’t sure. Looking at the walls, he could see the shadows _moving,_ like they were alive. He watched, fascinated. “Edward is needed, he has already been through abuse once, don’t make it for nothing.”

Envy growled; his hand grew back like it had never been bitten off in the first place, as Ed continued to watch and listen with young curiosity.

Basque Grande cleared his throat before turning to Tucker. “I think we’re ready to proceed, Tucker.” With a nod from Grande, Tucker turned to the confused chimaera still hiding behind him.

“Fox, I need you to stand in that circle. It might hurt a little, but we’re going to help give you a disguise so those hunters won’t catch you again. Can you do that for me?”

Edward was still confused. “What it for?”

Tucker began to explain. “Didn’t Raven tell you? He can change his looks so he looks like us humans.” Edward shook his head; Raven didn’t ever tell him that. “Well, he can, would you like that too, Fox?” Ed didn’t have to think for long, it sounded like a good idea, hiding among the humans; imagine the things he could get away with! Filled with devilish ideas, Ed nodded and ran to sit on the circle, cross legged this time.

The transmutation wasn’t hard to preform and Ed barely made a sound. When the transmutation was over, a young teen of fifteen years stood on the circle, completely naked with his hair the same but bangs that could cover his eyes if he wanted. His hair was still in the same warriors plait with the one he had when he was half a wolverine. The new Edward looked down at himself, bemused by his new appearance. Yup, he looked sexy alright as well as taller, that was the most important thing. He stared at his new hands, there were no paws or claws, but his hands would be able to grip things he had trouble with before. He felt colder too, his fur was thick and extremely hydrophobic, so having little to no fur was a big change for Ed. He looked at the other humans, including Envy, and was disheartened to see that he was still short for a human.

“Fox, can you walk slowly for us?” Tucker asked. Ed was confused, but when he tried to walk, he realised it was a lot more difficult than he thought. Putting one foot in front of the other was child’s play, but he was used to walking on four feet, not two in this very human way without his tail. The tail sure made a huge difference, but he managed to walk towards Tucker and grab his hand without falling once.

“Great, he can walk, so much achieved.” Envy grumbled, but the shadows hushed him. Edward didn’t care for Envy’s lack of enthusiasm, he felt that he’d accomplished something, he could hide among humans and walk like them too. All he needed to do now was to talk like them.

“Tucker?” Tucker was surprised that the chimaera had learnt his name so quickly, but he was going to let it slide. “Can teach me how to speak like you?”

Tucker was surprised for the second time in that many seconds. It seemed that Edward was eager to learn, but being at a young age, which came to no surprise. Kelson nodded, “Of course, but you’ll have to work hard.” Edward nodded; eager to just get on with it already. “Don’t you want Raven to see your new form?”

Fox blinked, then a smile came to his face. “Yes, Raven can like both forms now!”

This was news to Basque, the way that was worded. “Like?”

Tucker wasn’t sure, but decided to ask Edward. “What do you mean by ‘like’ Edward?”

Ed put a grin on, standing tall. “Me and Raven are mates, you woke me after we mated and ate. That’s why wanted sleep.”

Already? But this was to just chain together that they were mates, wasn’t it? Surely, it was already too early for Edward to conceive? “Wait, that means you could become pregnant?” Tucker couldn’t help asking, he was getting excited again. Basque sighed, Tucker did this, but he didn’t bother trying to break it.

Ed scratched his head and tilted his head. “No, need more than once to make kits.” Then Ed got an idea. Smiling he went to ask; “You can help look after kits when born?”

Neither Envy nor Basque knew what ‘kits’ were, unless it meant kilts, but that was rather unlikely, but Tucker knew what the chimaera was asking. “You can’t produce milk?”

Ed shook his head. “No, ill.” He was ill?

“You mean incapable?”

Ed nodded. “Yes, that.” Edward sighed. “Want kits but can’t give food, you give food when they born?” Now Tucker knew what the chimaera was asking, just to help the young chimaera with their milk, because their mother was unable to produce any. Tucker smiled and nodded. Edward smiled back, happy as can be. “Can have kits now!”

Tucker patted Ed’s head. “Yes, you can. Now, let’s fine Roy, shall we?”

“Yes, yes!”

Tucker smiled and turned back to look for some simple loose clothes for Edward to wear. Baggy jeans were one of them as well as a cotton jumper that felt softer than fur. “Here Ed, put these on.”

Edward took the clothes and looked at them, bewildered. “Why?”

“Don’t you feel cold like that?”

Edward did feel cold, but he didn’t quite know how to put these on.

Tucker turned to Basque and Envy. “Excuse me, but I request some alone time with Edward to help him dress, I can join you after I’ve settled Fox down, if you don’t mind?”

Basque didn’t think they had a choice, he’d rather not look at the naked brat anymore, and Envy was growing increasingly impatient. “Granted.”

Taking Edward’s hand, Tucker led Ed to the bathroom just next door. Taking the boxers, he asked Edward to bring up a leg.

Ed scowled; “Just wear those, no need two skins on.” No matter what Tucker tried, Edward refused to wear the boxers and said he’d only wear the jeans. Luckily, the jeans had some protection between the zipper and where his prick would be when he wore them. Giving in, Tucker showed Ed how to put the jeans on. Satisfied, Ed asked for the jumper to come on. Raising his arms, he watched Tucker put the jumper on his body and memorized it for later use. Tucker hadn’t bothered to bring socks or shoes; he didn’t think there’d be a need right now, what with his feet being hard padded from his wolverine side, so Edward was soon ready to show himself to Raven.

Raven was dressed in a hospital gown in his human form when Edward arrived. Raven planned to show Ed his human form, to explain it existed, but Tucker seemed to beat him to it. It was a good thing, though; otherwise Fox might not have recognised him so fast. With a smile, Edward ran and jumped up on the bed beside Raven.

“Raven! Look! I have long hair!” Edward called quickly in excitement. Tucker chuckled and left quietly to leave the pair alone and re-join with Envy and Grande to see what they wanted. Raven smiled, running a hand through Ed’s new blond hair. It was so soft and silky; Raven could see himself getting easily addicted to stroking it. Ed smiled and ran a hand through Raven’s hair too. “It’s short and flow-y.”

“Yours is so soft and silky.” Raven mused, he never expected Edward to look so cute in his human form.

Edward smiled, then looked at what Raven was wearing. “Why you not wearing trousers?”

Raven sighed. “Don’t like them. Need to clean legs often, trousers stop that.”

Edward shook his head. “Don’t have to clean so much, still be my mate when dirty.”

Raven smiled, the pair of them lying on a bed together as he snuggled his head beside Edward’s, like two lovebirds. They both slept like that in the comfort of each other’s arms.

 

Footnotes~

(1) 35kg = 5st 7.2lbs = 77.2 pounds


	3. Emergency Protocol Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A rogue chimaera is rampaging around the laboratory, ramming into Raven and a fight ensues. Edward gets caught in the excitement and slaughters a nurse he had caught eyeing Raven up. Afterwards, Raven and Edward talk and soon they copulate in their human forms (slightly explicit). Meanwhile, Alphonse decides to join the military to find his brother, much to Winry's dismay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's only two more chapters (or three if I type up Chapter 6 in time) before I am caught up on the writing. Fanficiton is already caught up waiting for chapter 6, but of course AO3 isn't that old and I only recently got an account. Expect much slower updates from chapter 5 (or 6), sorry! Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Warnings: Explicit violence, gore, language and homo sex (in their human forms too)

Emergency Protocol Three

“I’m going to join the military.” It was the first sentence that Alphonse had said since the day his brother was kidnapped that flowed with the old confidence he used to have. “I’m going to enlist as a State Alchemist.”

Winry didn’t like the idea at all. She protested and told him that he was all she had left now, but Alphonse refused to be deterred. The last of his family was kidnapped a few weeks ago and he only now managed to come up with a solution. He wished there was another way, but this was his last resort.

Pinako hadn’t liked it either, but she understood why Alphonse was doing it. He and his brother did everything together, they were inseparable. For one to suddenly be captured, by the military, no less, was simply unacceptable. It probably gave Al the best chance of finding Edward, hiding and searching right under the nose of the military.

“Do what ya gotta do, kid.” Alphonse was grateful for Pinako’s acceptance. Al knew that he wouldn’t be able to call them for days, possibly for weeks, at a time if he joined the military, but it’s a price he had to pay to find his brother, his remaining family.

That’s how he met Colonel Maes Hughes. He had been on a train heading to Central when a gang of train pirates tried to take over the train and steal its goods and passengers as profit, slaves maybe. Alphonse had managed to impress Hughes with his skills in alchemy, dealing with the pirates over the top and below.

Having impressed Maes, Alphonse asked the man about the State Alchemist exam. That was the tricky part, because Maes reasoned that the State Alchemist exam could only be taken by adults over eighteen, much like the army. It was impossible for Alphonse to take the exam for another six and a half years, if that’s the case. That was much, much too long. His brother could’ve been dead by then! He reasoned with himself that he’d never stop looking for his brother until he found him, dead or alive. It didn’t matter; he just had to find his brother.

It would take a lot more work for Alphonse to convince Maes to help him with the State Alchemist exam, but he was determined to do it. For his brother, he had to.

…

In the few weeks that Fox had been with Raven, things had been going well. They mated a few more times, the animal need to mate deep down being mixed with the urge and pleasure to do so from the human, though it took a few more tries before Roy was able to make it even comfortable for Edward to have sex. He felt relieved that he had found a male that was both strong and able to pleasure him. The animal part only found sex as a mechanic, as a way to become pregnant and make kits, whilst the more human part craved it, it craved touch that the wolverine detested sometimes.

Hence, when his mating season ended, he came to a problem. The human part craved the touch and the feelings brought upon intercourse from his mate, but the wolverine protested, hissing and snarling at the thought of being touched anywhere there out of mating season, like it would be a sign of disrespect.

Over the course of the summer, now coming to autumn, Fox noticed a growing number of scientists coming and going. He noticed the cameras in the corner moving about a lot more, but they got the same food every other day. He couldn’t understand the sudden rise in scientists.

Raven didn’t seem bothered about it, he went about as normal. What normal usually was was more often than not making sure that Fox himself was comfortable, making visits to Outside occasionally though he refused to go Outside anymore by himself and eating deer or moose. That was their usual daily routine. Raven was sometimes taken away from Fox for reasons he didn’t know. When he asked Raven, he told Ed that it was tests of strength, whatever that meant. It made no sense to Fox, but that was the best he was getting.

Then an announcement was made by one of the female scientists, breaking their daily routine.

“Hello Raven, Fox.” She started, coming into the room slowly as she stood in their territory. Both were in their human forms, Raven wearing jeans (Fox managed to convince him to wear loose trousers and easy to pull offs to begin with to satisfy the scientists) but no top whilst Fox wore nothing but lying beneath the duvet of the bed.

The scientist faltered a moment, but recovered quickly, hoping to cover up her mistake; “I’ve come to let you know that we’re going to be moving you to a bigger room.”

Edward frowned. He had grown to like this space, though it made much more sense to get a larger room they hung out at most of the time. Ed looked towards Raven for his opinion on the matter, but Raven didn’t seem like he had much of an idea either.

“Why?” Raven asked the scientist.

When she took too long to answer, staring at Raven’s chest, temporarily forgetting that he was a chimaera and not a human, Fox snarled. It was still vicious sounding, wolverine sounding, despite him being in human form now.

The scientist snapped out of it and spoke quickly; “Fox mentioned that he wanted cubs-” Edward corrected her quietly with; “kits” and she nodded then continued on, “So we thought you might prefer a bigger room.”

Raven wasn’t sure what to think. On one hand, he knew that he had to move, it was in his blood as both human and wolf to always be on the move. On the other, he had been living in this same room ever since he arrived; the other guests moving in rather than Raven moving into their home. It felt strange, he didn’t quite know how to feel about it; like this place was home, maybe. Whatever home was.

Regardless, Raven knew it was the right thing to do. He nodded, letting the nurse know that he understood and that he agreed. Looking at Edward, he knew he was doing the right thing. Fox was smiling slightly; a certain glow seemed to be hovering around him that was infectious to all who saw it. Raven couldn’t help but find himself smiling back. What he was smiling for, he wasn’t exactly sure, but if Ed was happy then he surely was too.

The moment was broken when the alarm was set off. Both Raven and Fox winced and whined, their sense of hearing much more sensitive than a human’s, but quickly recovered. Raven’s sense of hearing was much more sensitive than Ed’s; if he concentrated, he could just about hear the roar of a nearby chimaera that had seemed to have escaped.

“ **BEAST ESCAPED. THIS IS NOT A DRILL; REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. BEAST ESCAPED.** ” The speakers throughout the lab blared, along with normal lights being turned off for power saving and emergency lights along the floor being turned on, showing the exits. They weren’t very effective in showing where to go, but it was the best they could do on such uncommon circumstances. For creatures such as Raven, who were colour blind, would hardly be able to use the lights because they were too low.

Hearing this to confirm his feelings, his animal instincts flared up. This was _his_ territory, _his_ mate and _his_ everything. He wouldn’t stand for anything to be in his territory that would threaten his comfortable life.

With that in mind, he stood up off the bed and headed for the door.

“Raven?” Fox wondered what Raven was about to do. Wolverines weren’t as territorial as wolves were, but he could feel it in his bones how outraged Raven felt. Animals were more in-tune with body language than humans were, so it took a simple glance for Fox to come to the conclusion that Raven was quite angry. The tense muscles, the sudden silence and almost calm look as the alarms still blared, the sheer walk of confidence like a man on a mission and the eyes glaring a defiance of black and blue.

Raven turned his head quickly towards Fox, soon enough to spot Ed attempting to get out of bed. Raven was quick to stop him with a near roar of wolf. “STAY!” He bellowed quickly, stopping Fox in his tracks. Said chimaera flinched but quickly obeyed, a pissed off wolf was not to be messed with. With a snort of approval at Ed’s obedience, Raven turned back to the door and peered outside.

The hallway was too dark for him to see effectively, barely able to catch the edges of the surfaces of the walls in his black and white vision. But he could smell _everything._ Smell was all he needed to fight, defend and conquer. He could smell it, whatever it was, he couldn’t quite define. Similar to bison, but not quite, same family but drier. It was faint, but he could smell it. He ignored the cries of the scientist behind him and stepped out into the corridor fully.

Fox watched intently. There was no point in getting involved; Raven would just send him back with an order to sit back out of the way. He’d push him out the way physically, if he felt he needed to; Fox could feel that. Still, he couldn’t help but quickly get up, morphing to his abomination of a form in that moment of sheer panic when what set Raven off appeared in the most barbaric of fashions.

With no clear warning at all, an easily reaching two meters tall of a monster had pushed Raven out of Ed’s sight from the doorway without a care in the world.

Like a fly to a fly swatter. A mackerel to a dolphin. A hot knife through butter.

Before he could even consider the reactions of Raven, Edward ran out into the corridor after the pair of chimaeras, around the panicking and stricken scientist who was clumsily trying to activate the nearby alarm to indicate the area of the fight. Fox looked down the corridor to spot a mass of animal and human fighting. Teeth, hooves, claws and horns were locked in bloodshed. Scientists were nowhere to be seen, but it was a useless situation. If they dared to use any sedatives, they risked killing either one of them as their bodies were so unstable to any form of drugs or overworking. It was impossible to push either one of the chimaeras away lest they be trampled or clawed to death.

All they could do was watch.

Raven was past the point of caring, past the point of any humanity he had left in him, it all fled the moment the bull chimaera had hit him with its horns. All that mattered was that the bastard had to die. It was something too dangerous to be around in his territory and he wasn’t standing for it. He was as tall as the bull chimaera when standing up in his werewolf form, but the horns posed a bit threat to him. The bull chimaera was out of control, in complete and utter panic, sensing Raven as a threat. Blind to fear, it charged with all its might, clumsily on two feet, but still incredibly fast for its size. Raven snarled, tail swishing in anticipation, slamming against the wall hard enough for a nearby fire extinguisher to fall, before he charged also.

The two supposed mythical animals locked in battle. Raven tried to finalize a plan to put this to an end. In a small corridor (small for him and the minotaur) he was at a disadvantage. The bull could easily strike him with those horns of its and that would be the end of him, no questions asked. He needed to be more cunning than that. As a hunter, he was born cunning.

Trying to use the human part of the brain for planning, Raven threw the bull aside, through the wall and into his room, to make a bigger area. With a roar, Raven leapt at the fallen enemy.

Fox, being about a quarter of the size of Raven and the bull chimaera, made use of his reflexes to stay out of the way. It was hard to accomplish as the scientists kept trying to stay close enough to the fight to see, but not close enough to get involved. He was bouncing up and down in excitement. The child inside of him excited at something interesting and new happening, whilst the wolverine wanted to get into the fight, loving the violence Raven was causing and the need to actually kill was growing stronger.

The child inside knew not of right or wrong, too mixed and too attached to the animal within him to care. The feeling was right, the tension was growing and it was too much for Ed. Eyes locked on the very same female scientist who didn’t know her place with Raven, Ed ran and leapt like a tiger. He was the size of a large Border Collie (only when on four legs), not too large but big enough to be frightening when it was running at a person at full speed.

The female scientist didn’t have time to scream before Fox’s teeth was ripping at her neck, blood spilling like a fountain from her broken arteries and veins and windpipe; the sound of tearing barely audible over the sound of Raven’s roaring and the bull’s bellowing. Human blood and flesh did not appeal to Fox, at all. He quickly spat out the chunk of flesh that tore off with his jaws and settled for pulling off the scientist’s head. Unable to break the head off, Edward brought his bone crushing teeth down on the spine, snapping it in two with ease. With the head loose, he picked it up and began to roll it from side to side. A picture that would’ve been cute had the wolverine beforehand had not pulled it off a real person and was covered in the blood as evidence of his act.

Barely any scientists paid attention to this, but the few that did ran for the nearest loos and vomited violently.

The other scientists paid attention to Raven and the bull. The bull struggling and trying to get back to its feet, its advantage being taken from the werewolf’s head and jaw, aiming for its throat. In a panic, it threw its head up.

The horns struck, by pure blind luck. They struck and dug into the left shoulder of Raven, the chimaera howling and whimpering in pain as his arm got caught in a spasm of signals going wrong in the brain. He pulled away, taking the other chimaera with him until the horn snapped. Still, the horn stayed buried into the shoulder of Raven as the enemy roared in pain, blood dripping from its now empty socket in its head. Much of the horn had been snapped apart, too much for the chimaera to survive.

Raven pulled the horn out quickly, snarling, before taking the bull’s neck in his jaws. His jaws snapped shut on the chimaera’s windpipe, suffocating the already dying animal, the animal’s legs trying to kick the werewolf off it, but in vain. Two minutes of the kicking and Raven pulled the enemy up; dead.

With a growl, Raven dropped the bull down. He stood up straight, tail lifting, before he howled his victory, to be known as the victor to the whole two mile area that his howl could be heard from that he beat the enemy and survived. The wolf part noted it down as a victory, whilst the human part seemed oddly hurt by this victory. It seemed almost sad, for some reason he couldn’t explain. Like he’d done this before.

At the end of his howl, his nose picked up a scent other than the blood of the minotaur. Turning his head, he caught sight of Fox, his mate, currently sitting down with the head of the dead scientist from earlier. He lowered and walked towards Ed on all fours, limping slightly due to the shoulder injury, but otherwise making it fine. Again, the more human part of the brain was saddened by what Edward had done, even horrified. The wolf part of the brain didn’t necessarily care, though it was confused as to what the wolverine was doing.

Ed looked up, catching sight of Raven, before he managed to struggle a smile on his face. He picked the head up in both of his paws and held it up like a trophy.

“Look, Raven!” He called in a happy voice, excited at his achievement; “First kill!” Raven knew he probably should’ve (or shouldn’t have) felt proud of Fox. He wasn’t sure, one side was feeling as proud as can be, the other was repulsed and banging against the walls of his skull to escape seeing anymore. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“What’s going on here?” A familiar voice finally called through the crowd of scientists. The escape hadn’t gone unnoticed by Kel Tucker, as he ran at a reasonable pace out of the crowd of white coats and out in the open near Raven and Fox.

Raven was quick to act, snarling in frustration at the doctor. He knew that Tucker worked most of this place, he knew Tucker knew everything. So, how did this happen? How could he have let that thing go loose, ready to harm Ed and possibly their cubs too?

“ _You!_ How did this happen?” Raven demanded, not caring about his place, that Tucker was meant to be higher up than him, not caring that the scientist could punish him for this later. All that mattered was that Raven could help prevent something like this happening again.

Tucker was taken aback by Raven’s sudden aggression. He was usually quite placid, but the fight with Taurus might’ve set his more animal side out and the only human part of him left was the ability to talk. The animal could’ve been doing all the talking and not the human.

“I’m sorry, Raven. That chimaera was a new one and he got very upset. People from Outside did some terrible things and he must’ve been frightened and stressed from being in a new place. We hadn’t had the chance to explain like we did with the both of you.”

Whilst Raven could understand, it didn’t mean he had to like it. “He tried to kill Ed and I, I wasn’t about to stand down and let him do his work on him or I. Ed is all that matters.” Some might’ve thought this borderline possessive, but this was how the wolves worked. The mind of the wolf was talking; the real Roy Mustang wouldn’t have talked this way. Not that they knew of, anyway.

Tucker was unable to find a reasonable response to that the day of the attack.

Shortly after the attack, Raven was taken to the Aid Wing to check over his injuries. The shoulder wound would be a pain for him to deal with, but he was strong willed and ready to handle anything. Ed himself was put in the new room, left with Tucker to have a talk together without Raven being involved.

“Fox, how are you feeling?”

Fox sat as Tucker did on the chair, now clothed in an everyday shirt and jeans, watching Tucker intently yet listening to something far away at the same time. He felt like he wanted to grab his tail and stroke it, just to fiddle with something since the head was taken from his possession because it was deemed ‘unsafe’ so they said. He was still filled with energy that just had to be spent somehow, anyhow.

That’s how he felt, but he wasn’t sure how to put it into words. He did the next best thing; he shrugged and swung his legs in and out like a young child, hoping it’d give out the message.

It hadn’t.

“Is there something wrong, Fox?” Tucker asked again, trying a different approach to get the question answered.

Well, there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with Fox; it’s just that he had a lot of energy he wanted to get rid of. He wasn’t sure how to go about that. Then he recalled a word, a word that would work perfectly right now for his situation, a word he wasn’t sure was a real word, but a word nonetheless that felt right.

“Restless.” Ed spoke, feeling slight accomplishment for finding the right word. He was restless. He felt like he had to keep moving, not stopping. He had this burst of energy that just wouldn’t go away and was making his feet itch. Anytime he was in his wolverine form, his fur itched and prickled for a reason he couldn’t understand. It was bugging him immensely.

“Restless? Well, you did have quite a scare back there when Raven fought Taurus.” Was it? Fox didn’t think so. He wasn’t scared, though he winced slightly as a childish wail had called in his brain whilst playing with the scientist’s head. It was her fault for being there, she also tried to get her hands on Raven, it was called for! He felt proud, he actually killed something himself and they didn’t need her anyway, there were plenty to go around.

Apparently Kelsen thought otherwise. He was trying to convince him that they needed the scientists and it wasn’t right to be killing innocents when they had done nothing wrong. That was a lie, she did do something wrong! Nobody was touching Raven, not in that way anyway! He saw her! Looking at him with those big doe eyes and that weird stuff she puts on her lips and eyes, what was with that anyway? Was that how normal humans found mates, by looking pretty like birds? What a stupid idea, all humans looked pretty much the same so it didn’t even matter when looks came into play. What mattered was strength, loyalty and, most of all, their ability to take responsibility. Raven excelled in all of those, he could care for Fox like nobody else could, he’d be perfect for fighting off anyone who dared threaten their life and take care of their kits. Then that woman stared at Raven for too long for Fox’s liking and so he killed her. Now, he was suddenly the bad guy.

He was doing what he thought was right, for him, his mate and their kits that would soon arrive.

“Fox.” Tucker broke him out of his ruse and he turned his head back to the military man, tilting his head ever so slightly. “You’re tearing into your shirt.” Confused, Fox looked down to confirm that his fingernails had clawed through his t-shirt in restlessness. He was so hyped on energy that he couldn’t stop moving in some form of fashion, it didn’t matter what kind of fashion.

Ed looked back up at Tucker and smiled slightly guiltily, hand caught in the cookie jar type of look. “Sorry.” He simply apologised, not sure what else to say. Because he forced his hands to stay still, his right leg started bouncing up and down like a bored child holding back on caffeine.

Tucker simply shook his head. “Are you feeling sick at all? Headache? Dizzy spells?” Fox wasn’t sure where that came from all of a sudden, but he shook his head to every word. He’d been fine, eating more but that’s about it. It was a slight amount, barely noticeable because it was coming closer to winter.

Tucker thought for a moment, before he spoke again; “Fox, do you know what alchemy is?”

Fox _did_ know what alchemy was. He wasn’t sure how, but in the back of his mind, he knew what it was. Alchemy was the act of deconstruction, analysis and reconstructing again to make something new. By use of the elements, you could change something into something else with the correct engraving. Ed wasn’t sure how he knew all this, but he did. He saw alchemy symbols in his mind, flying past, many, many, many symbols doing many different things, finishing with a really complex transmutation that screamed ‘taboo’.

Ed blinked, startled by all those images. What were those? How did he know this? Had he done it before? It meant something, he knew it does… but it hurt to think that much, think that far. Whilst he was a fan of causing pain, he wasn’t a fan of receiving pain and he cut his thoughts off for thinking further.

Looking up at Tucker, Fox quickly answered before the scientist thought something was really wrong; “Yeah. Remember alchemy.”

Kelsen was slightly worried, but it looked like that was to the extent that Edward remembered his past, the alchemy part. This didn’t surprise him, being the son of Hoenheim, he was bound to have alchemy in his soul. He remembered much quicker than Raven had and Raven had been at the lab much longer than Fox when he finally remembered alchemy. He wondered how well Edward could still do alchemy now with a body half beast half human.

“Fox, did you want to try alchemy?” Tucker asked the impossible question that could lead to many different reactions, many of them not good.

Ed didn’t hesitate for very long. Thinking for about five seconds, before he looked up to Kelsen with a slight smile on his face as he nodded, grinning.

“Fox want to try alchemy! Fox likes alchemy!” It was strange, how he changed his language sometimes. Maybe he was lazy or feeling very childish, he wasn’t sure. Tucker smiled, regardless and stood up. Fox stood up as well, much shorter than Tucker, almost laughably shorter than the scientist for a human looking creature, bouncing up and down in excitement. Tucker escorted Ed out to the training room for the alchemy to begin.

…

Raven looked around the new room. It wasn’t bad; it was much more spacious than last time. It had a new wardrobe probably filled with clothes for them, a sink they probably wouldn’t bother using unless absolutely necessary, a mirror which was just as useless as the sink, if not more, plain walls that he didn’t care about so long it blocked off sound and intruders out of his territory and the most important of the room, the bed.

The bed was huge, double king sized bed with plenty of room for both to roll around in and still not fall off the bed. The covers had both thick and think duvets so if either grew too hot, there was always a thinner cover if need be and they were black to look nicer for when they tried to sleep under them, curled up together like love puppies. Raven never thought Ed was the type to cuddle, but surprisingly Fox enjoyed cuddling often, especially whilst asleep. Especially after they mated. Ed became very touchy and almost blissed out after mating; it was unusual, but flattering at the same time.

Shaking his head, Raven went to the bed, human form and fully dressed after the First Aiders informed him that he was to try to prevent changing form for the time being to let the shoulder heal properly. He sat down, trying to contemplate what happened earlier and why he thought what he did.

He was confused. He fought off what he believed was a danger; he became completely animalistic and lost all sense and logic that he previously had. He felt it slipping the moment the bull made contact, he wasn’t sure how, but it was like he felt a fine string that held his emotions together in balance snapped, leaving the beast caged behind to free himself to cause chaos.

If that was the case, shouldn’t he be glad of what he did? Why did he feel like his soul was tearing apart? Did he even have a soul? Moreover, what the fuck was a soul? Why did he have so many of these words and references he didn’t understand running through his head and being used? Why did he even care?

Frustrated, Raven snorted a dog snort before lying on the bed, planning to sleep it off. Fuck those thoughts, they weren’t important anyway. They couldn’t have been; it was making his head hurt just trying to figure it out, even using them. He remembered a phrase or something, ‘pain is your friend’ but Raven didn’t agree. Pain hurt, pain was bad, pain was to be avoided at all costs. Pain was too hard to bear.

Shaking his head again, Raven turned over, frustrated and frightened. He wasn’t sure where all these new thoughts were coming from. What was wrong with him?

His troubled mind shut up when the bed dipped slightly, added weight pressing on the bed. Raven turned his head to see Fox, a concerned look on his face; head tilted slightly making his bangs fall in front of his face. He always looked cute when he did that.

“Raven okay?” Ed asked; his voice a normal tone uninfluenced by the wolverine throat that he had. He was taller in his human form than his wolverine form, only slightly, but he was still quite small for a human looking creature. It was unknown; perhaps he was just short naturally? The scientists didn’t know, but Fox seemed perfectly healthy so they didn’t let it trouble them.

Raven smiled and moved to sit up, Fox moving to sit up next to him. “Yeah, I’m okay.” He replied simply, not because it was expected, but because he really was now that Ed was here.

Edward smiled before lowering his head to Raven’s chest. “Thank you for beating that monster, Raven.”

Raven’s chest swelled and it showed on his face as he had a big grin printed on. “You’re welcome, Edward.” He put an arm around Edward and cuddled his face into Ed’s neck, almost fitting like a perfect puzzle piece.

They laid there in silence for a while, a few minutes or so, before Edward lifted his head slightly. “Raven?”

Confused, Raven looked up; “Yes?”

Ed hesitated slightly, then licked his lips before asking; “Did I do something bad?”

Raven wasn’t sure what Edward meant by this. “Bad? Like what?”

“I killed that scientist lady. Was I bad for that?”

Oh, now Raven knew what he meant. He remembered that he felt disappointed in Edward, whilst at the same time proud, that he had done what he had. Fox could hunt and clearly kill, if he wanted to, pretty well. He himself didn’t understand why he felt disappointed or even disgusted by what Ed had done. It was perfectly natural, so why did he feel that way?

“Did Tucker say that?” Raven asked instead, hoping to sort out his train of thoughts or at least push the subject away from that area.

Ed blinked slightly, still looking at Raven with full eye contact, before he nodded slightly. “He said that he needed the scientists and that she did nothing wrong. She did, though! She looked at you like I do, almost. Only I am able to do that! Bitch deserved it.”

Raven was startled slightly. He was told by Tucker when he heard that word that it was a bad one to use no matter the situation, but he wasn’t as surprised as he should be that Fox decided to use it. When angry, he was known to give out a rush of words and harsh words, now including swear words it seemed. It was the first time that Ed had gotten that angry or irritated though that Raven could recall.

Then Raven smirked slightly; “Were you jealous?”

Ed snarled, huffed then turned his head away. “Of course! She wanted you and only I am allowed you!” He turned back to see the werewolf still smiling at him. “What? It’s not funny!”

Said werewolf chuckled, “I know it isn’t, I’m just happy.”

Fox raised an eyebrow, “Happy? Why?”

“I’m happy that you care enough about me. That you like me and I like you too.”

Ed calmed down hearing that, before he finally broke into a slight smile too, “I like you a lot, Rave.” He lay back down again, pressing his head into Raven’s neck and trying to make himself as comfortable as possible. “You promise you’ll only be mine? Nobody else’s?” He looked up at Raven’s face to see his answer.

The chimaera was still smiling, putting an arm around his companion, then kissing his forehead in reassurance. “Of course, I promise you’ll be mine only and I will have nobody else. You promise, too?”

Ed let a big smile show on his face as he nodded vigorously, his bangs flying up and down in excitement. “Yes! I’ll be Raven’s only! And we’ll both look after the kits well, yes?”

Raven knew how much the kits meant to Edward, one for how many times he kept mentioning them and another that he kept telling Raven how much they meant to him. He also talked to him about the problem of not being able to feed them. Raven offered to get them fresh meat where he could Outside, but Ed told him that that wouldn’t do any good. The kits needed milk, which Fox didn’t have nor could make. He did, however, ask Raven to persuade the scientists when the time came to give them milk for the kits, or otherwise steal it, if need be. Raven was excited to see their cubs too, whilst at the same time worried. They weren’t the same species; it didn’t matter to them, but would it to the cubs? He didn’t like to think about it and just hoped that if a problem happened, the scientists would be there to help them if they needed it.

Raven smiled and nodded, “We will.” With that confirmation, Raven leant down to give Fox a kiss on the lips. They rarely got together in their human forms because they weren’t as familiar or as comfortable with it together yet, but tonight might change that, so Raven hoped anyway.

Minutes later found them both naked and in the open, the cameras having turned off a while ago and the lights turned down low for the night as they always did. The door to their lair was closed, no need to attract attention whilst they were spending time with and to themselves only. Ed lay wide open to the world on his back, watching only Raven as he was licking his stomach with his elegant tongue, leaving a trail of sparkling saliva reflecting in the low lighting.

Fox didn’t care about the atmosphere; all he cared about was Raven. He panted, body heating up under the ministrations being received by Raven himself, cheeks flushed and hair sticking to his forehead in the human sweat. Ed was surprised that he was sweating, he hadn’t been able to in his wolverine form, but he lost that train of thought when Raven placed his mouth to his throat. Loving the feeling, Fox grabbed a hold of the chimaera’s body and brought him closer, holding him almost prisoner, whilst at the same time pushing his hips up to keep in contact of his partner’s body.

Raven hissed slightly, the contact of a hot body with his own already hot body (that wasn’t sweating, Raven didn’t have that luxury) was almost too much. He wasn’t used to such high temperatures as they didn’t usually have sex this way. It was usually quick, animalistic, this was slow, heated, passionate and, most of all, loving. Doing it because you wanted to, not because you had to.

With a slight aroused growl, Raven brought his dagger like teeth to Ed’s neck and bit down enough to leave a mark. Fox didn’t whine, but he did try to hold back a groan, of pleasure probably. His hands clenched into claws, almost, scratching down Raven’s back to help break the tension of the strong feelings, the almost overpowering feelings he had running through his head, body and soul. His toes clenched, legs wrapping around Raven’s waist to keep him close and his hands moved back to Raven’s head to force his lips back to his own where it belonged.

They kissed for as long as their breath would let them before they pulled away, a trail of saliva still connecting, twinkling in the low light and impossible to miss. A line that connected them from the mouth, heart and soul. That’s what it felt like to them, whom couldn’t deny either of their desires now. It was too late, too strong and too tempting.

“Edward?” Raven managed to pant out, not sure if Ed was in any pain or just impatient.

“Raven, hurry up.” That answered his question and he didn’t hesitate to kiss his mate again. He wasted no time in entering his mate, having tried his best to lubricate with his saliva as much as possible, giving into his and his partner’s desires fully.

It was a relief, for the both of them, to finally be connected. It was slightly painful, which in turn lowered the temperature slightly for the both of them and yet still let the feelings last. They were much more sensitive in their human forms than they were in their chimaera forms. The reason was probably because they lacked any fur that they had in their chimaera forms whilst appearing human, therefore the touches went right to the skin and were not hindered by fur at all. Both the wolverine and wolf had thick fur for the winter and it made it harder to touch the skin for the feelings to truly touch them. Now, whilst human and naked, they could feel _everything._

They had to remain still for many minutes before they tried to move, because the feelings completely overwhelmed them. At Edward’s signal, however, Raven did begin to move. And almost immediately stop again afterwards. It was much too overpowering to move as fast as he could whilst a werewolf, it just wasn’t done.

Raven gave it a few seconds more, before he tried again.

“Aah, Raven!” Ed had trouble getting used to it too, the feelings too strong, too powerful for him to get used to, to take it silently. Raven kept it slowly, hoping not to hurt or overpower either of them. He took it slowly, letting them become embraced in the feelings that surrounded them slowly and progressively. Neither were going to last long, though they wanted to stay in the feelings forever, embraced in something comforting, loving, human. For the first time that they could remember, they felt human. And they loved it. 

After Raven ejaculated, they both lay together on the bed, promising to themselves to clean up later. For the moment, they lazed in their afterglow. Both were tired, but both were too blissed to sleep, too amazed at the feelings they had been through together and had given each other. It was something to always be remembered. For the first time, Ed hadn’t protested at all to the idea of sex, neither the human side nor the wolverine side. Both were content and sleeping in his mind so he was allowed time to himself, finally.

Still, there was a small thing that was bugging the back of his mind that he wanted to talk to Raven about. Gathering the courage, Fox looked up at raven and licked his lips before speaking, “Raven?”

Raven looked down, seemingly half asleep but by the look in his eyes, he was listening. “Hm?”

“Do we give our kits names?”

That was a good question. Both he and Raven were given names by someone else; they hadn’t made the names up themselves. That meant that these cubs needed a name from them too, didn’t it? Who else would’ve given them a name but their parents? Raven knew that Ed’s had to be changed because it was too dangerous Outside with his real name, but the cubs still needed a proper name.

“Yeah, but I don’t know what to name them. Do you?”

Fox shook his head and sighed. “No. We ask Tucker?”

They could, but Raven felt like it was something they should do together, rather than ask the help of their alpha. Raven felt a special connection to Ed and the cubs that would soon be theirs. It was something special, intimate and, most of all, something they both made together. Wouldn’t it be insulting if Tucker named them rather than themselves?

“Let’s think first then maybe ask Tucker if we’re stuck, yeah?”

Edward nodded, smiling, seemingly satisfied with the response he received. He was worried for a second that Raven might not have wanted anything to do with the kits for a moment. He knew that he talked way too much about the kits, but this was his first that he remembers and he had the perfect mate to have the perfect kits. It was something to feel excited about, that’s what Fox thought, anyway. Smiling again, Fox buried his face into Raven’s chest once again, sinking down under the covers in case of the cold night and fell soundly asleep without any troubles.

Raven smiled watching Ed being typically Ed. Still, as calm as he looked, he couldn’t help but get excited about the prospect of fatherhood either. It was something he felt he had to do in his blood. His mate was desperate to become a mother and be damned if he let that dream be ruined by anything.

With that in mind, Raven sunk down under the covers also, pulling Ed towards his warm body and cuddled up together like the love puppies he always daydreamed about, before falling into a deep blissful sleep, unable to wait for the future. 


	4. Code Black and White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspector Hughes gets wind on some possible clues on his best friend Roy Mustang's disappearance and has to deal with the new kid, Alphonse Elric. Meanwhile, Raven is having some alchemy sessions that go horribly wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this took me forever to post up considering this was written a while ago. Sorry about that, I was finishing off university then was packing for back home for three months. Stuck home for three months and I got no reply from Tesco on the possibility of a job. So stuck at home with no job. This can only go well xD
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter as well~!
> 
> WARNINGS: VIOLENCE AND MENTIONS OF THEFT ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. That's about it.

Code Black and White

Central had its stories about ghosts, as every other building did in many places, whether they looked new or old, rebuilt or due for demolition. Maes just hadn’t expected what he had been told to be possible. Bad enough he had a ten year old child constantly trying and begging for a place as a State Alchemist.

That boy, he said his name was Alphonse Elric, was a strange one, indeed. He mentioned very little about why he wanted to become a State Alchemist so desperately. Loving alchemy wasn’t enough, Maes wasn’t fooled by that excuse. You could still love alchemy, go out and show the world publically easier than joining the military. Alphonse seemed too desperate for that, there was something he was after that was something to do with the military, in some form. Something big and Maes wasn’t a fan of that.

So, he declined Alphonse to join the military. Whilst Alphonse could’ve applied to becoming a State Alchemist as an exception for saving a Major General, Maes didn’t tell him. He couldn’t let a boy of ten years old join the military and make the biggest mistake of his life he can’t back out of until it has already reformed, deformed and concreted his life into something abominated. Not until the Lieutenant Colonel figured out what Alphonse was after.

But that wasn’t what was troubling Hughes right now. One of his officers, a Corporal, had given him a message from Sergeant Kain Fuery, one of the techie people of Central and a good friend with First Lieutenant Hawkeye. Inside the note was nothing but a photograph. A black and white photograph of Major Tucker and what appeared to be the late Major Roy Mustang.

That wasn’t possible, Maes knew this, he had been Roy’s best friend during the Ishbalan war. He remembered when he got told that Roy Mustang wasn’t accounted for, that he’d disappeared. Maes feared the worst. He went searching for hours, being an investigator at the time, however not chief of Investigations department. The file on Roy Mustang said that he was sent to the frontlines of Ishbal. That was all Maes really needed, he knew that Roy being in the frontlines might’ve been caught in the crossfire of other alchemists or maybe even Ishbalans that were resisting. He wouldn’t be able to get pure evidence that Roy had been killed or not if there was no body. But it had been so long, there was no way that he had survived.

So Hughes thought.

However, looking harder and clearer at the photo of the pair, mostly looking at Mustang, Hughes realised something.

That wasn’t the Flame Alchemist. That wasn’t Roy Mustang. It wasn’t the Roy Mustang that Maes Hughes knew, anyway. Roy Mustang never smiled the way that this photo of Mustang did. It was too innocent, too sheltered from the darkness that Roy Mustang had gone through, too lacking in the calculating look that he always wore whenever in public. Even before Ishbal, Roy Mustang had some form of paranoia that grew with the war. There was none shown on this version of the Flame Alchemist.

Maes had to wonder if brainwashing was possible. Or he was going mad. Either way, he had to take action.

Grabbing the phone, Maes dialled a number, unsure of the reaction he was going to receive when he told them.

“Riza, I’m going to need you to have a look at something. Immediately.”

…

Winter had arrived, the number of scientists plummeted as Christmas was just around the corner, but the few scientists that were around were snappy and not in a good mood. Edward figured he knew why.

Upon moving into his new room, he noticed the smell had gone. ‘The smell’ consisted of his and his mate’s scent. The room was clean, spotless, scentless. That wouldn’t do for Fox. To remedy that, he started to mark his territory.

To put it simply, he ignored the toilet and started pissing all along the walls, under the bed and, most annoyingly, in front and near the door. Understandably, the scientists weren’t happy about it. However, no amount of persuasion or bargaining was going to stop Fox from marking his territory; not even the threat of moving Raven apart stopped him.

“Fox! If you don’t stop this animalistic behaviour, we’ll have no choice but to move Raven until you start behaving.” A scientist, not a regular one either, threatened.

Edward wasn’t putting up with it. Even in his human form, he snarled, teeth showing, glistening in the low light of the room at the time. “Try to touch Raven and I’ll fucking rip that arm off. Raven is _mine!”_ The scientists were at a loss. He was only going to listen to Raven and Raven didn’t seem that bothered about Fox pissing all over the floor. He reassured the scientists that Ed’s little rage would end soon enough because it smelt too plain.

Luckily, Raven was correct. After a week, Ed gave up, happy that the room smelt like theirs once again. That was one thing out of the way for the scientists. But they still weren’t sure how their experiment was going.

Fox surely must’ve conceived during the spring/summer. He and Raven had mated many times, so there was no way that Ed hadn’t become pregnant. Yet, winter was here and there was still no sign from the wolverine chimaera that he had even conceived. He hadn’t been throwing up, he hadn’t been having any pains, he hadn’t been affected by hormones and he hadn’t been gaining any significant weight. The only difference was that he was much more territorial, much more obsessive of Raven which was becoming a problem for the researchers.

Raven was learning well with fire alchemy, he was getting to his almost potential. They were hoping that today would be the day. The day for the return of the Flame Alchemist.

“Okay, Raven. Today is the day.” Tucker told Raven, putting a hand into his pocket.

Raven blinked, then tilted his head; “What’s today?” He was currently in the training room, a wide room with an alchemy circle on the floor, inactive and unresponsive to anyone, so far Raven knew. A few pillars seemed to keep the room up, but it was an ideal environment to train, in a wide open area.

Tucker brought out a couple of gloves, white gloves with alchemy circles on the back of them. He held them out, waiting for Raven to take them.

As soon as Raven grasped them, he nearly pulled his hand right back. They felt… strange, rough, unusual, _familiar._ Why? Raven took the gloves nonetheless and rubbed his fingers on the material. They were very familiar, that and the circle. A flash of him putting his gloves on, a memory in his mind of him putting these very gloves on whilst looking through the mirror passed through his vision. He shook his head, shutting his eyes, nearly wanting to grasp his head in pain.

He looked back up at Kelsen, who had remained silent through the vision and in giving him these gloves back. Yes… that was right, these gloves…

“These are mine?” Raven asked, knowing he was right but wanting them to confirm.

Kelsen hesitated, but nodded. “You remember?”

Raven looked back down at his gloves. “Only that they are mine.” He looked back up at Kelsen, now curious about these memories he had been getting. “What happened?”

Tucker didn’t answer as the door was suddenly kicked open.

“Well, well. Time for the dog to play with fire.” Raven quickly put on the gloves, hearing the voice of the creature Envy. He never liked Envy, he smelt rotten and talked just as much rubbish as he smelt. He was a threat, so his body said, his senses; he wasn’t about to ignore them.

“At ease, Raven.” Tucker told the chimaera quickly before he could let out a fireball. “Envy is here to observe.” Raven forced himself to calm down, even though his whole body was warning him, telling him to kill the parasite, the danger.

“Better listen to your master, dog.” Envy sneered, to which Raven tried his best to ignore. He had a short temper when it was tampered with, but he usually tried to rein it in. For Fox, he would.

Turning to Tucker, Raven asks, “How do I use these gloves?”

Kelsen went to explain, “These gloves are synthetic, made of a special type of material that when you click your fingers, you create a spark. Do you recognise that alchemy symbol?”

Raven raised an eyebrow, before lowering the gloved right hand to his eyes, to see the alchemy circle clearly. He definitely recognised it. The circle manipulates the amount of oxygen and location of it. Raven knew what that meant, Oxygen was highly flammable. If a spark was to go off when there was a high amount of oxygen, then it could easily explode. He’d done this a thousand times, he remembers the light, the feeling, the power behind a simple click of the fingers, a couple of gloves and you could explode if you got in his way. He was unstoppable, he was powerful, he was… he was…

Raven winced, a hand grabbing his head, a migraine coming along.

“Are you alright, Raven?” The question Tucker brought up took Raven out of his thoughts, the migraine disappearing as his thoughts (memories?) stopped.

Raven smiled, despite the panging in his head in the background and his confusion as to what those thoughts and images were. “I’m fine, don’t worry.”

Tucker wasn’t so sure, but he couldn’t argue. “Alright. Now, I’ll ask again. Do you recognise the alchemic symbol?”

Raven looked down again at his gloves, trying not to think too hard, in case it set off the painful headache again; “I do, it’s mine.”

Tucker didn’t react, but Raven could sense a certain air of nervousness. “Good. Do you remember how to use it?”

Raven looked down at the gloves for a few moments, before he looks back up at Tucker, uncertain, “I think so?”

Kelsen seemed happy enough with that as he nodded; “Do you think you could try to light a fire for us with your gloves?”

The chimaera thought for a moment before he nodded. Turning to a desk that seemed to be left in the middle of the large hallway like room, the werewolf locked his eyes on the target and began to concentrate. A few moments later, he gave it a try, clicked his fingers and watched the result.

The table caught fire fair enough. What wasn’t expected was the table and the area a meter around it to explode in a fiery blaze, like a landmine blew up with a car underneath it catching fire. Tucker and even Envy, whom Raven had almost forgotten about, flew back in both surprise and by the force of the blow. Raven managed to stay up, only because he had been shocked into staying still. That was a lot more powerful than he had assumed his power to be. Those memories from the war (what war?) weren’t lying when they showed him how strong that power was. It was unbelievable! He could blow up buildings with this power! He could kill people at a distance, like that Minotaur, he could click his fingers and burn it alive. He could punish people, if they dare to try to hurt his mate, even look at him the wrong way, or even their cubs; he could just click his fingers with his gloves and be rid of the problem.

Raven blinked several times whilst those thoughts ran through his mind, before his eyes moved down at his gloves. Killing people at a distance, destroying danger before it even touched him, it was perfect! Just what he needs for his family! Raven couldn’t help but laugh. It wasn’t a safe laugh, not a happy laugh or even an amused laugh. He wasn’t sure what laugh it was, but he couldn’t stop. Visions of fire, burning, gunshots, blood and people, many people. People on the floor, people fleeing, people dying, people burning. A village now in rubble, tones of rubble, burning. Explosions blew, wind blew, people blew. All he could smell was death.

“I remember!” Raven managed to say out loud when he finally stopped laughing. Even Envy, who wasn’t human, was worried. If Raven turned against them, they could easily be in deep, deep trouble. “I remember!”

Tucker got up to his feet quickly, “Raven! Put down those gloves!”

Raven wasn’t listening.

The scientist knew that it was now or never, they might have to retort to sedatives, which was a last resort due to the risks to Raven’s body being so almost completely unstable. Calling to the other scientists in or nearby the room, also through walkie talkie, he got up to be ready to use the sedative. However, he wanted to try to calm Raven down before he tried it.

Slowly, Kelsen walked towards Raven, keeping a strong eye on the possibly catatonic chimaera; “Raven, calm down… take a deep breath.”

Raven seemed to hear Kelsen and instead of listening to him, the werewolf put his hands to his ears, to try to block all sounds.

“Guns are too loud… it’s too hot!” Raven found the need to shout, to even be able to hear himself over the gunshots. He still couldn’t hear himself; he couldn’t hear Tucker over the sounds of gunshots, flames burning or girls and children screaming. It was too loud!

Tucker grew increasingly worried as he watched Raven start to shake, almost violently.

“Doctor T, what the fuck is going on!?” Envy yelled, unsettled by the way the chimaera was reacting with his trademark gloves on.

Kelsen didn’t answer; too busy watching the unstable chimaera shaking, almost vibrating, his hands still covering his ears.

Without warning, Raven turned back towards Tucker and Envy, an insane look in his eyes, eyes dilated and chilled. Raven’s face held a grin, an uncomfortably wide grin with sharp teeth full on show.

“ _So. Much. Blood.”_ Raven’s voice was low, his human voice blending with the voice of the wolf, a deep growl sounding behind his throat. Tucker knew what this was; most carnivores that caught the scent of fresh blood went into a frenzy of violence, especially when in an enclosed environment when the smell is more potent. Tucker was sure he was remembering the time in the middle of the Ishballan War, where there would’ve been a lot of blood.

With a snarl, Raven lowered to all fours, his head down as if to look at his own body. In a flash, fur sprouted in a burst bloom from his back, arms and a tail sprouted from his backside. Claws elongated as did his face, ears and length of his body, arms and legs. The sound of cloth ripping apart gained cringes like nails to a chalkboard, heard over the sound of slight growling that grew lower in pitch. It took no time at all for Raven to stand up, fully in his chimaera form, his eyes sharp and focused. He looked around the room, spotting the burning objects that he had blown up not long ago, but then moving his sights back to the scientist and homunculus.

Then he snarled, stood tall, and howled. Tucker paled. That howl was bad news, the worst. That was the call of a hunt, the signal that the hunt had started. And _they_ were the prey.

Quick as a flash, as if every single scientist realised what was happening and what the howl meant at the same time, they turned and fled towards the exit door. In a fit of excitement to fleeing prey, Raven picked up a nearby table and threw it towards the running group of scientists. A couple of scientists were caught under the flail and with sadistic glee, Raven leapt at the stranded and doomed scientists. He didn’t even hesitate to grab the scientist’s arm in his strong jaws and pull, the scientist screaming as he felt his skin being stretched and almost being ripped apart, yet the bones remained stubbornly together, prolonging his pain. With a loud snap, the bone finally gave in, breaking apart with a crunching snap that would never leave the ears of the scientists, dead or alive. The scientist continued to scream for a few moments, before he finally fell unconscious, but soon died.

By the time Raven turned back, most of the prey had run away, with a snarl, he howled once again, letting the prey know they could run, but they couldn’t hide. Putting his nose to the ground once he finished the howl, he followed the scent of running scientists. He didn’t pay attention to where he was walking; only following the scent of his prey, knowing that looking up would compromise his hunt. His sight wasn’t very good anyway, only just able to pick out outlines of objects and people, his vision black and white.

Raven moved fast, following the scent that might as well have been a long trail of smoke signalling where they went without fail. He knew he was panting and grunting in excitement of the hunt, but he didn’t care for the noise he made. His prey was already running and that was all he needed. Wild and frightened running prey meant injuries and possibly deaths. More food for him. He could hear an alarm blearing, but the hunt blocked out everything else, but the smells. They smelt decent, not amazing, but it was still food and blood. He couldn’t get that out of his mind, the smell of the blood, soaking into his skin as the bodies of many Ishballan children exploded by his very hands. The hands of power, the hands of pride, of envy, of greed. He had to have the blood.

He spotted the running shapes of people as he turned down a corridor and, in a fit of excitement of the prospect of more blood on his hands; he dashed down the corridor, awkwardly but fast on all fours. He was upon them in just a few seconds and ready to swing his large claw back on two legs, when a sudden flash of blond leapt at Raven’s face. The werewolf was too focused on the scent of blood that he hadn’t noticed that Edward had heard the commotion of scientists running and went to check out the reason behind it. When he saw Raven, or rather his eyes, he knew something wasn’t right. He leapt out at Raven in sheer determination of keeping the scientists alive, knowing he needed them and that Raven wouldn’t do this unless there was something wrong with him.

Raven fell back, yelping as he near panicked in his confusion of what was happening. The scientists made numerous exclamations of surprise, but ran all the same as Ed managed to buy them time to escape. He quickly jumped off of Raven’s face, before the werewolf in his craze sliced at him or his face. Snarling, the werewolf set its eyes on Fox who, whilst only standing just under a metre tall and a metre long, was snarling right back, his fur stuck up to further intimidate as well as crouching ready to fight full on in his chimaera form. Compared to Raven’s two metres tall werewolf form, it seemed laughable to anyone watching that Fox would take on such an opponent. But that’s what wolverines did, they fought _anything_ and they weren’t scared of a single thing.

Because of that sheer determination, Raven hesitated. Things that were determined were serious, even if he was small; he had easily clung to his face and immobilized him for a while. Raven was angry, but he wasn’t stupid.

That small bit of hesitation was enough for his mind to clear up, for the dust to blow and the sounds to shut up. Raven blinked several times, trying to clear his head before he relaxed from his crouched state and lowered his claws. Fox, seeing this, did the same but hesitated, not sure if this was a ploy, but figured it wasn’t.

“Raven?” Ed asked, hesitant to wonder how Raven would react.

Raven blinked but nodded, a sure sign he understood; “I’m sorry, Ed. I didn’t mean to.” His ears drooped as well as his tail down in shame at what trouble he had caused. He really hadn’t meant it, he honestly felt like he was in danger, back in… wherever it was.

Ed managed a smile on his bear-like face and stood straight on all fours, staring up at Raven in relief; “I know, Raven.” With that, Fox walked up to Raven and nuzzled his face into the werewolf’s bloodied chest, ignoring the feel of the wet blood as well as the salty smell. All he cared about was that Raven was alright.

Smiling if he could, Raven put an arm around Fox awkwardly and stared down at him, content with where he was. He knew he was in trouble for what had happened, but he wanted to enjoy this moment of peace whilst he could. Pulling back, Raven took the time to morph back into his human naked form, his clothes having been ripped when he had transformed in the confusion and he waited for Edward to do the same before hugging him again. They needed a time to calm down, find peace in each other and reassure the other that they were fine.

They weren’t.

Fox noticed that something was wrong the moment that Raven tensed up in the hug. It wasn’t the scared tense or uncomfortable tense, but definitely a pained tense. Pulling back, Ed looked up at Raven to ask him what was wrong when he noticed a drop of blood sliding down to his chin from his mouth. Raven’s eyes were closed in pain and his body was extremely tense.

“Raven?” Ed questioned, worried and scared of what kind of pain Raven was in. By this time, the scientists had realised that Raven was out of his blood rage and had calmed down considerably and was now safe. However, they noticed the look on Raven’s face and the way that his breathing seemed laboured.

Raven looked down at Fox, his mate, to try to answer back that he was in pain. However, when he tried, the moment his mouth opened up, a slime of blood dripped out of his mouth, enough for Raven to begin choking and coughing. He turned away, not wanting for Ed to see, and promptly vomited on the floor, vomiting blood.

The scientists quickly ran to Raven’s side, panicking and discussing the possible cause for this. They continuously asked how Raven was feeling and where the pain was in his body. Unfortunately, Raven was unable to answer, coughing up more blood, clutching his stomach until he finally collapsed. Ed panicked, shaking his body and calling out his name, trying to wake up.  At first, he growled at any of the scientists that got close to Raven, until the scientists’ reasoning got through to him.

“Fox! We can help him if you let us look at him. He’s really sick, he could be dying and only we can help him!”

That stopped Fox and he looked back at the amount of blood that had been vomited from Raven, then he quickly looks back at the scientists and nods frantically. “Yes, yes, please save him! You have to! Can’t orphan the kits!” He pleaded with the scientists, down on his knees with wide and frightened eyes.

The scientists were shocked hearing the confirmation from Ed himself that he was, indeed, pregnant, but there was a time and a place. Without hesitation, the scientists took Raven away into a more secure medical area, taking great care not to injure the unconscious chimaera and went to work to try to find the problem.

The problem took a few hours to find, much to the distress of Fox, and it didn’t look very reassuring to the disappointment of the scientists. Because of the stress of believing that there was a war going on in the exact room he had been enclosed into, his body had stressed out so much during the change that an artery had burst in the process nearby the heart area. It was a very serious situation and there were points where the scientists were sure they would’ve lost the chimaera, after looking after him for four years, give or take.

Gate was on their side. Raven held on by the skin of his teeth, scraping through his stubbornness to live on further. He was extremely weak from the hours of surgery and drugs that had taken place, but he was alive. The scientists were relieved, but also concerned that such a thing had happened. Tucker had been looking after Raven ever since he was brought in, he had made sure that Raven was living healthily and wouldn’t suffer badly if something went bad. If that was true, how did Tucker overlook it?

Edward was allowed in to visit Raven after a few days of resting. However, Fox wasn’t sure how to make out Raven’s condition. It was clear that Raven was alive, but he was clearly in a bad way and Ed wasn’t sure how to help. He wasn’t sure how to react; not knowing if Raven could hear him or not, whether Raven would even wake up again. The scientists had explained to him what had happened and he understood the majority of it. However, seeing it was completely different.

Raven’s human form was unbelievably pale, the skin almost white with the loss of blood and the attempt to getting his blood levels back on track and the effort to keep him alive. He looked like he had only just fought off death’s claw.

Ed refused to move for weeks afterwards until Raven was finally healed up and ready to be released. It took many weeks until Raven was finally released along with Fox who had done as he had said, refused to move and became the biggest pest in the lab. Not only that, but the number of scientists around had again gone down during the weeks that Raven was held in the infirmary. Because it was snowing, is what Tucker had told Raven when he had asked, but he had no idea what snow was. He vaguely recalled white patches of soft ground, but snow? No clue.

Whilst Raven was sleeping, Ed got bored on more than a couple of occasions and decided to wonder around the lab. He was told to not wonder so much on his own, but he believed he was more than capable of handling anything that came in his path. There were many chimaeras in the cages; more than Edward had believed could live in the labs. Various different chimaeras, but he noticed that the warthog-human chimaera had disappeared as its cage was empty. Regardless, Fox pushed on, wondering further into the corridors and ignoring the curious looks from chimaeras, most of them silent but some were grunting or sniffing. Some said hi, though Ed simply nodded back in greeting with those that spoke.

Then he heard talking and the chimaeras quickly shut up, those that were making noises. That was a powerful voice, whoever’s voice that was. Whilst Fox barely heard it, there was authority in that voice, strong and demanding. Moving onwards, Fox began hearing the words that were spoken.

“See? This power, this could be yours if you just do as we ask. It’s important that you get it right.”

“O-of course! I won’t let you down! I’ll never disappoint you!”

“Good, remember that the angel is watching.”

Ed quickly poked his head around the corner, skittish in his human form making him seem as young as he was. He spotted first the fat man that had his back towards him; the man was bald and just generally very fat. Not anything Ed wanted to look at. What he did want to look at was the taller man that was currently flying. The man wore a white robe and had bird wings sprouting from his back. Had Edward known what an angel was, that was what he would have called it, but his alchemy self knew this was a chimaera between a man and a bird, the wings of the bird being the only thing of the bird showing. Ed realised the type of bird used must’ve been a type of eagle, as the wings were brown and golden, rather than white and the feathers suggested a bird of prey able to glide. Why the people decided to make that was beyond Ed, for he knew that it could only fly and probably took weeks, if not years to learn how to fly with that weight. Fortunately the wings were long enough to support the weight of the man, most likely because the bones of the human was lighter, light as a bird’s and therefore breakable.

Ed crouched down, silently shifting to his wolverine form to better hide, getting the feeling that he wouldn’t be welcome but too curious to leave. He perked up his ears and listened carefully, breathing through his nose to make less sound.

“Yes, of course! Is that truly what the red stone does?” The fat man asked the winged angel. But not quite.

“That’s not all; it even goes as far as to ignore Equivalent Exchange if you use it well!” That wasn’t the angel speaking. Ed looked around the room for the culprit, but could find nobody that he could see that would’ve spoken those words.

That was until he spotted the shadow under the angel. He swore he could see it _breathing._ Like it was alive, moving of its own free will, unlike a thing that a shadow was meant to do. But Fox stayed put, knowing that if he moved or made too much sounds he would attract their attention, something he knew he didn’t want to do.

“Ignore Equivalent Exchange! But that’s against even nature!” The fat man replied, shocked to be told such a thing.

“It is, isn’t it? You know only the Philosophers Stone can do such a thing. This isn’t exactly the Philosophers Stone, but it is merely an incomplete version of it. With your help, we can finalize that test red stone and eventually be able to develop it into a full Philosophers Stone.”

Fox knew exactly what the Philosophers Stone was. Any alchemist with a great ambition knew what it was. Ed knew he had to have the Philosophers Stone, just to say that he had been able to hold it in his paws. The legendary Philosophers Stone, able to turn lead into gold in many legends but Edward went further into the detail. He knew that the Philosophers Stone could ignore equivalent exchange and even could make a successful human transmutation. Edward knew that it was possible, so the tales say, to bring a human back to life with the power of the stone. It was something that only legends spoke of. What Ed would give to hold the Philosophers Stone, to feel its power, to taste it and take control.

Fox knew that he had to have the Philosophers Stone, if he could ever get a hold of it, he would. Without listening to anything more, Ed turned quickly and headed back to Raven, plotting already a way to steal the stone if he could or help the scientists in any way he felt he could.

…

Alphonse wasn’t having much luck. Even after trying to convince the military man, Colonel Maes he believed the man’s name was, he knew he wasn’t going to get into the military. This was bad news; it meant he was going to have to wait until he was eighteen before he could get to his brother. By then, his brother could be dead, or more likely dead by then than now!

It had been six months and Alphonse still wasn’t able to get the military to let him in, despite his best efforts. He hadn’t gone back to Resembool like many would’ve thought he might’ve done for help. Instead, he stayed in Central, doing good deeds for the people that needed it, using alchemy to help the people and many of them took him in to their homes for the night. He mostly slept in the streets, on park benches and other peoples’ houses when he could and was offered. He doubted the military knew that he was, but he didn’t have a home anymore, being technically an orphan now as he was sure the military suspected of him and had already seen their house, the house having no owner alive anymore. He was homeless and without a hope to save his brother.

But he didn’t regret it. He didn’t regret leaving home to find his brother; he was determined to find his brother no matter what. He just didn’t know where to start in a world that was so big, too big for him to find alone.

He was walking through the streets, thinking this through about how more complicated the quest to find his brother was when he tripped.

“What the…?” Getting up on his feet, he turned to see what he tripped over. He apparently tripped over a man. A man clearly from Xing, wearing an oddly bright yellow jacket to be lying on the floor, groaning as if in pain. He also wore ripped trousers and sandals. Not much else protected him from the outside world. But Alphonse didn’t concentrate much on that, he was more worried about why the man was flat on his face on the ground in the middle of the streets groaning.

“Hey, mister!” Alphonse called, going to the man’s side and touching his shoulder ready to shake. “Are you okay?”

There was another groan, before there was a small voice; “hungry.” Alphonse’s stomach growled in agreement, also hungry since he hadn’t eaten since yesterday.

Alphonse sighed. “You’re not the only one, thanks for reminding me.” He said sadly.

The Xing man didn’t get up for a while, but when he did, he was up and full of energy suddenly. “Aw, don’t be so down! I’m sure we can get food somewhere!” He said, cheerfully.

Alphonse startled, he wasn’t used to people being so bipolar on him. How did this guy have so much energy when he was writhing on the floor earlier? “Were you just pretending so people would feed you?”

The Xing man continued to smile, as if he was always happy, before he nodded. “Yep! It usually works back home, your country is quite different from ours.”

Alphonse blinked, still sitting on the dirty floor but that was the least of his worries right now. “You… you come from Xing, right?”

The Xing man nodded. “Of course! Where else would I have come from?”

Alphonse shook his head before speaking again. “Did you get in here illegally? I know Amestris doesn’t have the best relations with Xing.”

The Xing man seemed to almost frown, before he went back to smiling happily again. “Yep! It’s the only way to get in and I need to!” Then the man finally grew a bit more serious, but still not very. “What are you doing on the streets? You don’t look older than twelve!”

Alphonse sighed before he decided the truthful answer was probably the best thing for him. “I’m looking for my brother, my older brother. He was taken by the military for something and I’m going out to rescue him, but I don’t know where he is and the military won’t let me inside.”

The Xing man looked sorrowful for a bit, before he smiled again happily. “Don’t worry! How about we work together? See, I want something from the military too, so why don’t we both work as a team and you can get your brother whilst I get my treasure?”

Alphonse blinked. “Treasure?”

The man nodded. “Yes, I’m looking for something that will help save my country and the military has it, but they’re not going to give it to another country are they? So I was going to borrow it and save my country! I’d give it back later, of course!”

Alphonse wasn’t sure whether he could really trust this man, but if he wanted help in saving his brother, then he had no choice. “Okay, but you have to at least tell me your name.”

The man nodded and kept on smiling. “I’m Yao Ling! Pleased to meet you! And you?”

“I’m Alphonse Elric, nice to meet you, Yao.” Alphonse held out his hand to shake, which Yao took. “So, where do we start?”

Ling though for a bit before he clicked his fingers. “How about lunch first!”

Alphonse blinked, before he stood up and dusted himself off. “Lunch? But we don’t have any money.”

Ling stood up and tutted. “Not with money, we steal!”

Alphonse blinked. “Steal? But that’s against the law!”

Ling tutted once again. “Yes, but how else are we to survive. We’re going to steal back your brother and my treasure anyway; we might as well make a start, no?”

Alphonse had to agree with that logic, when Ling put it that way. “Okay, you win. So, how do we go about this?”

Ling thought for a moment, before he smirked and whispered into Alphonse’s ear.

The plan ended up having Ling irritate a guy and run around the store away from the angry dude whilst Alphonse snuck in and stole some food whilst everyone was distracted by the chasing couple, leaving Alphonse free reign of the food.

Ling caught up with him easily, being from Xing and a very good tracker. Like a ninja, many might say. He had to admit, Alphonse was definitely impressed by what Ling could do. Alphonse mentioned to him that he could perform alchemy and quite sophisticated alchemy at that, which Ling was sure to exploit to help them in their survival on the streets.

This continued on for many weeks, both him and Ling stealing food from the stores when they needed some and remaining sleeping on the streets (though they managed to steal a tent so slept under shelter) whilst at the same time trying to spy on the military. They couldn’t spot a single weak point in the military’s government, even when Ling could pretty much climb walls, and the military began to feel wary around them for snooping around so much.

They hadn’t gotten much further in their quest and things only got much worse when they tried stealing from a butcher for food. They felt daring for this butcher and really hungry since the last one didn’t go to plan and their food got stolen by a stray dog. The dog was too fast for either of them to catch, so they had lost their dinner for many days. Their plan for this time was to block the door to get back into the butchers area using alchemy and they could quickly steal what they wanted before she managed to get around the other side.

Quickly, Alphonse got inside, noticing that the butcher was in the back room and he quickly drew the circle on the floor before he put his hands down and the floor came up and covered the door completely. Alphonse motioned for Ling from outside to hurry and get inside to take the safe to eat meat into the bag. They’d have to eat them raw, so they avoided grabbing any chicken for the risk of food poisoning (1).

Little did they realise who exactly the butcher was.

They were about ready to leave with their bag of food, when Alphonse heard a clap, then a bright flash of blue light coming from the door he had blocked. Alchemy!

“Ling! Get out quickly!” The pair quickly made it for the door, hurrying to escape from the butchers finding out that the butcher was an alchemy user. Ling made it through the door and Alphonse almost made it until there was a clap and the floor rose to block the door and all the windows to keep Alphonse prisoner in the butchers. Turning around, he saw a woman, but clearly a butcher holding a  butchers knife, wearing sandals also and braided hair coming towards him with murderous intent. Alphonse nearly felt like whimpering for his life, but his instincts ran on survival mode and he quickly drew a circle on the floor to bring up a stone fist heading towards the butcher.

But the butcher was fast. She clapped her hands and put her hand upon the fist and it dissolved back into the floor. Alphonse couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t known anybody to be able to transmute without a circle, though he had read about them. He quickly dropped his chalk and fell to his knees and almost began crying, ready to accept that he was never going to save his brother or live through this.

“Please, I’m sorry! We’re just really hungry and we can’t get a job, we don’t have any money. We’re sorry!” It was useless, but at least it made Alphonse feel martially better to confess his sins.

The butcher was right in front of him now, but she didn’t bring down the knife like he thought she would. Anyone else wouldn’t have hesitated. Thieves weren’t given any privileges.

“Why shouldn’t I just kill you now?” She asked the sobbing boy on the floor.

Alphonse sniffed and looked up at the butcher. “I don’t know. Why don’t you just end it already? I already failed him.” He whipped his eyes with his very dirty sleeve, having not washed in weeks.

The butcher knew that the kid wasn’t talking about the other that made off with her meat; there was something more to this boy. There was something about him, something powerful inside.

“Who have you failed?”

Alphonse was struck by surprise by this. But he felt better letting it out; he was going to die anyway. “My brother, my older brother. He was taken away and I can’t find him. I want him back but he’s never coming back.”

The butcher felt sorry for the poor kid. She couldn’t blame the kid for stealing from her; after all she did the same thing back up north near Drachma. The kid also had potential and he was clearly an orphan, living on the streets with his last family member taken away.

Izumi couldn’t have a child of her own, so why not adopt one that clearly had no other family members. “Stop sobbing, you’re making a mess and you look disgusting.” She sighed and put the butcher’s knife down on the table. Alphonse looked surprised and quickly stopped crying. The butcher crossed her arms and motioned her head towards the door. “Go on, get inside and take a shower, a long shower. Then we can talk more.”

Alphonse didn’t question it and went inside to take a shower, confused as to how he got another chance, but happy that he had one. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~Blackie
> 
> (1) NEVER EVER eat raw chicken! You must cook chicken thoroughly and completely before trying to eat it, because raw chicken is poisonous to humans. If you eat even the slightest big of raw chicken, you could become very sick with food poisoning and in worst case scenarios get salmonella, which can kill humans.


	5. Mission Five: Parentage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edward finally gives birth to his pups! He and Raven get to know the pups and raise them together. Meanwhile, Riza has seen the picture of Roy and believes it to be the true Roy alive and well. They suspect Colonel Grand had something to do with Roy's disappearance, but no way to prove it. Months later, Hughes has the problem of people complaining about monsters coming in the night and eating their pet animals in Central and he doesn't trust this new Fox Kindred soldier that has appeared in Central Command.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I'm home from uni now. Guess I have nothing better to do but write fanfiction now. Maybe I'll finally update something at a reasonable time. XD IN MY DREAMS. I can dream~
> 
> WARNING: As if it wasn't obvious by reading the summary, there will be childbirth in this chapter, or rather pup birth. It isn't too graphic, I hope, so I don't believe there's a reason to skip it. PLEASE also be aware that there is also child death mentioned in this chapter as well so be prepared if you are sensitive to such things. Otherwise. nothing else important really.

Mission Five; Parentage

If Hawkeye hadn’t seen the pictures before her, then she would’ve scarcely believed it. She remembered working with Mustang during the war, watching him and her father at work with their alchemy. Whilst she didn’t understand it herself, she enjoyed watching them experiment and Roy’s failings with his alchemy training. She thought her father rather harsh, but she had grown used to his harsh ways. Whilst he didn’t believe in the Amestris army, he was impressed enough by Roy Mustang’s determination in protecting his country to trust him with his lessons.

He didn’t, however, trust him enough to his biggest secret.

The biggest secret he tattoo’d to his own daughter’s back to protect it. She never had it removed and she never let anyone, not even during copulation, look at her back. Even if they weren’t an alchemist, she didn’t want to risk even slightly desecrating his death with giving out his last remaining secret.

She held huge respect for Roy, maybe even fancied him a little, but she knew of the things that Roy Mustang as Major had done. Whilst they were terrible things, horrible things that she too had done, she didn’t think her own father would’ve regretted ever having taught Mustang what he knew. His heart was pure gold and she was sure that he’d learn from those mistakes he had made during Ishbal.

That was, if he lived to correct them.

But now, apparently, Roy had lived through the Civil War, though not entirely in one piece, emotionally. If the picture was to be believed, it was basically someone in Roy’s clothing, but wasn’t acting like Roy at all. Riza had seen Roy’s face after he killed those two soldiers; the apparent blissful face in the picture wasn’t Roy. Whilst Roy had been somewhat upbeat when he first met Hawkeye and remained so through his training, but there was a difference between the smile Roy usually had and the smile that Roy showed in the photo. The photo Roy was blissfully ignorant, absent.

Riza looked up to Hughes. “When was this taken?”

Hughes lifted up his glasses before he replied. “My sources say it was a few weeks ago, he had to keep on the down low for a few days before he could get back to me. He took the picture around the outskirts of Central. He tried to follow them, but it was too risky and he backed off. However, we know that the man with Roy Mustang there is Doctor Kelsen Tucker who works under Colonel Grand, who is soon to become General in a few days time.”

Hawkeye knew of Colonel Grand. For he was the same Colonel that ordered the shooting of the two Rockbell doctors that broke Roy Mustang for a day. She had heard what had happened from Maes Hughes, who had tried looking after Roy as he was vomiting on the floor before he walked off to cool down. Hughes let him go, knowing he needed to get to grips with his mind.

However, Mustang never came back.

That was the last anyone heard of Major Roy Mustang again. Colonel Grand said he had been caught by Ishbal rebels and had been executed for being a State Alchemist. He had been the first to find out what had happened to Mustang and he didn’t need to show any evidence to prove that. There was no need when they were in a war zone.

So, either Colonel Grand lied, or he truly believed that Mustang had died. Two guesses which Hawkeye believed.

However, there was no evidence to prove so.

“Is there no other evidence against Colonel Grand? He grew up in ranks rather fast, Lieutenant Colonel, sir. I don’t like the look of things.”

Maes Hughes shook his head. “I know, Lieutenant, I’ll have my best looking out for Tucker. I don’t trust that man either, but our only link is Doctor Tucker himself. We know he has a family, a wife and son who is soon reaching eighteen, and he is somewhat an expert on biological alchemy. Other than that, we don’t know much.”

Hawkeye nodded, understanding the situation but felt rather hopeless as well. Looking at Hughes, Riza saluted. “Is there anything you need me to do, sir?”

Maes Hughes wasn’t quite sure; he wasn’t sure what was acceptable in Mustang’s last wish to risk Hawkeye in trying to get him back, to get to the bottom of his doppelganger.

Then he had an idea.

“Wait for my command; you’ll need to be ready if we need to get Roy back.”

Riza dropped her salute; bowed and nodded before she turned away to continue on with a poker face of what just occurred.

…

Things were going right to plan, thought Edward, standing proud. He had gathered a lot of clothes ready for the time he knew was coming soon. He had stolen them from his own wardrobe that he hates, Raven’s wardrobe that he hates and from the laundry room before the caretakers noticed. He didn’t care; the others could survive without their clothes for a day, or week. His needs were direr; he’d only accept the best for his kits.

He was still worried on how the kits were going to be fed. The scientists had told him many times, but Edward being picky, he wasn’t sure if he liked it. Were they going to have the right amount of protein, vitamins etc? And how will they hunt if they were constantly kept captive like he was? Would they go for walks with him to the nearby frozen woodlands as well to hunt? Or would they take to the streets and feed on the mice? Ed didn’t like the sound of that, but it was certainly safer than the frozen wasteland.

What would they look like? Would they be more like Edward or more like Raven? Ed didn’t care either way; he would love them and protect them all the same. He was well aware there would be fights, that some would fight each other over dominance, but it was part of growing up. But he would never allow them to kill each other or shame each other in the process.

He was also scared. The animal part of him was content and ready for what he was about to do, face parenthood. She had done this before, only once before but she had the instinct in her to be the best parent. His human side however had no idea, confused and scared having lost the instinct that nature intended. Humans were harder to tame, but being the confident individual that Fox was, he was sure his kits would make it out successful.

Raven, however, was still in quite a bit of pain to be able to give Fox the support he needed. Whilst he tried his best, Edward had spotted Raven flinch and wince every few moments. Raven still got regular checkups just in case, he still coughed up blood every few times when he pulled out his stitches. Though it was difficult, considering the shape changing. Raven had been forced to remain human until he was fully ready, as it was easier for their doctors to diagnose him than if he were a werewolf.

And it was at the moment that Raven had gone for his check-up when it happened.

At first, it started as a flutter, one that Edward more or less put off as normal this late into his pregnancy. Then his stomach started to cramp. It was unpleasant and he tried to stretch out to relax his muscles out of the cramp they’d gone into. It felt uncomfortable with his swollen belly holding his kits nice, warm and safe. But he could remedy that.

Rolling onto his side slowly, Edward turned his head to lick his sides carefully, hoping the heat of his tongue and mouth would calm his nerves at least a tad bit. They seemed to settle down, to Edward’s relief and he laid back on the clothes pile he had put on the bed. He hadn’t wanted to ruin the bed sheets.  His fur however made sure of that.

He had remained in his chimaera form as birthing was much easier on an animal than a human. Not to mention his human form was not built for that and birthing was a stressful process for both mother and kits. His wolverine mind calmed him down since it knew what to do; he would simply go with his instincts.

It was thanks to that mind that he knew what was happening.

There was another cramp half an hour later, more painful than the last. It still wasn’t too painful for Edward to handle, but it started to worry him. That was until he felt a sudden rush inside him, then flowing out of him that startled him enough for him to whimper slightly, uncomfortable. He was fully aware of what that was, though he was still taken by surprise of the feel of it. His water had broken and anybody outside would not have been able to tell that that was what had just happened.

His mind went blank for a moment, in a second of panic. Then the wolverine part of him calmed him down, spoke softly to him with the instructions on how to handle the situation. He decided to listen, being alone in the room and too much pride to call out for help.

He walked slowly towards the bowl of water whilst the pain was gone and drank slowly but plentiful for the ordeal ahead.

He refused food, knowing that would unsettle his stomach. He hopped back into bed, wrapping his favourite blanket around himself, that the child within called Blanky. He steadied his breathing working on a rhythm and preparing for the inevitable.

It took half an hour before another spike of pain hit. He knew it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but the animal inside became worried. Giving birth was not that painful usually for her kind. Edward himself had been used to pain like that, however. It didn't worry him too much, he could handle it. It would be worth it, he knew it in both his souls.

He merely shivered on the outside. It was enough of a shiver for the cameras to pick up. The fact that Fox had wrapped himself around in his favourite blanket raised suspicion. He shivered and closed his eyes, tail raising slightly from the back of the blanket.

That set bells ringing as the security realised what that meant, having some basic understanding of animal birthings. He immediately called for Dr Tucker, calling it an emergency that Fox was finally giving birth.

Dr Tucker, who was currently talking with Raven, made an excuse to leave the room, telling Raven to take a long shower. That would give them enough time to move Fox before Raven went into the room and possibly causing more stress and problems than the young pregnant chimaera was already going through.

Rushing into Fox and Raven's room, Tucker looked towards the soon-to-be mother, still curled up slightly and shivering with effort to remain calm and reasonable.

"Fox, how much does it hurt?" Tucker asks him, worry in his voice for more than one reason.   
Fox looks up, just able to manage a slight smile to see his master comfort him through this difficult first pregnancy.

"B-been worse." Fox answered truthfully. He shivered as another wave of pain cut through him, his tail raising higher as he felt the urge to push. He took deep breaths, his fur standing on end alert to all as he tried to remain calm.

"We need to move you to a more secure room." He heard Tucker say, only now realising that there were suddenly a lot of nurses in the room, bringing in a table that had a load of towels flat on it that Fox knew was for him. He didn't complain as the nurses picked him up carefully and set him on the table ready to be moved.

They didn't move far, to Fox's relief. He was brought to a nearby empty medical room that was filled with blankets and pillows and cushions. The walls were white, but that didn’t concern him right now. He was too busy trying to keep his breathing normal and at a regular rhythm. Tucker was telling him to do such, but he didn’t pay too much attention to him. If he were in his right of mind, he would have clawed out his vocal cords to get him to shut up, consequences be damned.

It hurt, more than he expected, but he could feel them, feel the cubs were on their way to the big old world. He was scared, frightened and rather alone, despite Tucker talking to him and the many nurses running around almost like panicked lambs. He wanted Raven, the one that cared for him, was supposed to protect their kits and fight off the monsters that Edward himself knew were out there, waiting to take his newborn pups away.

He was not going to let that happen. Ever.

Everything around him was a blur, a pain induced blur that he couldn’t stop. He did as his instincts told him. Shuddering, he allowed his abdomen to push, constrict and throw force to the birthing process. He felt that, he knew the kit was almost free. Licking his lips to catch escaping saliva, the young chimaera continued to push with his inner muscles to push his child into existence.

His kit. His first kit had finally made it into existence. But he knew he couldn’t rest as he felt another contraction shudder through his body. He had no idea how many he was destined to have, but he knew he would love and raise each one equally.

It took an hour of pushing until each one and the placenta were free. He turned towards his children, his kits. Three tiny kits were being handled carefully by the nurses. Two of them were squirming, one yawning and the other biting the fingers that got near its mouth. But the third was not moving. Growing worried, Edward sat up, lowering in a threatening manner, angry that his kits had been handled at all without his permission.

“What you doing!?” Fox demanded, his English breaking in his rage.

Tucker took the not moving kit and held it close to Fox’s nose. He sniffed the kit. The kit was not breathing.

“His lungs hadn’t developed properly.” Tucker explained. “He died the moment he was born, his lungs were too damaged from the cross breeding.”

Edward blinked, unable to comprehend everything that Tucker explained to him. He understood that this kit, whose bald body had never moved to so much as breathe, never able to witness the world outside his own womb was gone. A foreign feeling of dread filled his chest, a feeling his wolverine side couldn’t make head or tail out of. His humanity was crying out, pain filled with the loss of a child. His wolverine side knew the consequences, has had a loss before of a still born. Only once, but she was prepared more than the child inside of him, who only remembered death from watching his mother die.

His mother? He had one? She died? Yes, he knew that to be true, he was certain; he felt it, deep in the dread. But he couldn’t remember her, couldn’t remember her name or what she looked like. He was sure she was human, completely so, at least that’s what he thought. Her voice sounded lovely, calm, like a song, a whisper from the fairies and the touch of an angel. It hurt his head, to remember her, to try to remember how she was, if he even loved her. He guessed that he did, why else would he be thinking as he was? He remembered a dropped fruit, a gasp, crying, sobbing, lightning, flames, so much blood. So. Much. Blood. Ammonia, Carbon, Phosphorus-

Edward snapped out of his memories, or he believes they are memories, to spot Tucker taking his dead kit away.

Alarmed, Edward shouts, “What are you going to do?”

Tucker looks to Fox, a sad smile on his face, pity. “I am going to show Raven, he would want to see him before he is buried.”

Fox didn’t stop him, knowing that Raven deserved as much. Soon, Raven will see his remaining kits that will live and grow strong. One cub looked more like Raven, long arms and legs but with the yellow fur of Edward, almost bright gold colour like Fox’s hair. Toothless for now, but clearly had the jaws of a wolverine. Both cubs were blind, their eyes shut and would be for a few days, but Edward loved them both the same. The other kit was smaller, dark blond bordering brown and appeared more puppy than bear.

Lying down, Edward cuddles up to his cubs content and blissful after the task of giving birth to two beautiful kits. He felt sad for his loss of one kit, but he couldn’t dwell on the thought when he had two kits to raise. He would take care of them, to the best of his ability. For that was his new purpose in life.

Raven’s health had been getting better. The scare of his sudden deterioration had gone. He didn’t get Tucker this time, Tucker had been busy with another chimaera problem. Either that or it was those strange creatures that smelt like death. Raven had heard their names in conversation not long ago. The female with a snake tattoo on her chest was Lust, now Raven didn’t mind her too much, but he couldn’t help but be wary of her at all times. She was the master of another being, Gluttony, a small but fat being that enjoyed playing with the other chimaeras, even with Raven at one point. He liked to chew bones, but mostly he liked to eat. It wasn’t uncommon for Raven to find him coming into the room whilst he and Edward were lying together, simply relaxing. Gluttony seemed to like Edward just as much, whilst Ed simply tolerated him enough to allow Gluttony to pet him and play with him.

The third most regular one of the beings Raven hated. Envy he was called and he could see why. Envy was constantly jealous of the attention Raven acquired from the rest; he was the star chimaera, according to Tucker. Envy could turn into anything and anyone, so far he could find out. It didn’t make a difference to him, he could still smell Envy easily, his wolf nose more than sensitive enough to smell him five miles away.

The fourth but didn’t visit often. He was much older looking than the rest with a missing eye from the looks of it. He wore blue officer uniform, it seemed officer to Raven anyhow. He almost always had a smile when he visited. Though he rarely visited, he was always a pleasant surprise to see. Wrath seemed to like Edward the most, but Raven hadn’t minded, Gluttony was always there to play with when Wrath came around.

Raven was playing with Gluttony at the time, pulling a bone Gluttony had his hands on in his chimaera form, his tail wagging in a taunt, when Tucker burst in. He let go of the bone quickly, Gluttony doing the same, staring at Tucker confused and blank.

That’s when Raven could smell it, now that he was paying attention. He could smell Fox’s blood. Instantly, Raven’s stature changed. Snarling, he crouched down, fur standing up, threatening, angry.

Tucker immediately began shushing, trying to calm Raven down. “Sh, Raven, it’s your alpha! Fox is fine! Fox has given birth to your cubs.”

That shut Raven up. Fox had given birth? Why hadn’t he been told? He missed it! Then he noticed that Tucker was carrying something. Tucker stood closer after seeing Raven relax, holding his hands out. In his hands was a cub.

A dead cub.

“One didn’t make it. He was too badly mutated, his lungs weren’t strong enough, he died the moment he was born. Fox wanted you to meet him before we bury him.” Raven was heartbroken, but he knew the risk of a pup not making it. Whining, he nudged the cub several times, licked the cub’s fur a few times in mourning and respect, before looking up at Tucker.

“Why bury?” He asked, confused.

Tucker smiled, “So his body can help the earth, make the plants grow stronger.” Raven nodded, that made sense to him. The trees were sacred to the land, almost tiny gods on the Earth.

“Can I go see Fox?” Raven asked tentatively, but his low voice broke the innocence that his voice should have held.

Tucker’s nod was all he needed as he made full speed ahead for his mate. He had to see how Edward was, to see how his other cubs were, how many were there? What did they look like? So many questions flew around his head, excitement in seeing his cubs for the first time. The first time he would lay his eyes on his offspring, the first time he would touch them, smell them, feel them. The first time he could love another being in a different way to how would love Edward. He had heart enough to love many, but he found it hard to let people be loved in that way. But Raven knew; he had more than Fox out there. There was someone else, someone he revered, someone he trusted. He couldn’t remember, but he knew there was someone, a blue uniform like the one Wrath wore, black hair, always talking, always prideful, newly dating, the war, the pain, screams, bombs.

Raven stopped by Edward’s side, his memories shutting off as he laid his eyes on his lovely cubs. Two lovely, healthy cubs. It was instant; he became instantly protective, glaring at the doctors and nurses nearby, walking on all fours, crouching, tail swishing in warning, stalking towards his mate and cubs. This was his life now; this is what he was born to do. To continue his life cycle, to protect and make Edward happy and to have numerous cubs, a newborn species of chimaera to take to the world.

Yes, his life was complete now. Now he would help to raise their cubs to become brilliant predators, fantastic killers and marvellous creatures of legends. His cubs and Edward were all that mattered now. Nothing else mattered.

Smiling best he could in his werewolf form; he nudged Fox’s head, Fox himself licking his nose in appreciation.

“How be the cubs?” Raven asked, not caring if his English grew tired and lazy. He felt lazy, calm and content; he had his mate and cubs all in one place, safe and sound.

Fox nodded. “They ate, the nurses gave them milk. They’ll be fine. Once they grow teeth, we can hunt for their food again.” He explained just to put Raven at ease. Smiling, Raven nudged the cubs, licking them clean as they relaxed as a family, for the first time.

Tucker smiled as he decided to leave and let the family alone. His work was clearly done. But now he had to let _them_ know. Colonel, soon to be Brigadier General thanks to this success, Grande would be pleased. They could begin making new chimaeras to forge an army. Raven and Edward’s children, however, would all be specially trained. Tucker hadn’t meant to, but he had grown attached to the pair. They were his first successes and it wasn’t uncommon for scientists to become incredibly attached to their first big successes. It didn’t help that he had grown more and more attached to the pair because he spent so much time with them, they being their most important project. After he lost Shou, who had moved away from home to live his own life with his new girlfriend/fiancé-to-be, he grew more and more isolated in his own projects.

He returned to the room he and Raven had abandoned Gluttony in, to find he was no longer alone. Lust, Envy and Wrath had returned. Apparently the news had spread far, because each one looked gleeful, that one of their plans finally succeeded.

“So, we heard the animals finally had his sprog.” That was Envy, always the blunt one of the homunculi, never pleasant to be around.

“Now Envy,” Wrath, the newest homunculi, but the aura of order that he held gave him the respect of the other homunculi. “We can’t have Raven or Fox hearing your words, we won’t be responsible for what they do to you.” He turned to look at Kelsen Tucker, finally. “Doctor Tucker, I hear your experiment was a success?”

Smiling, the Fuhrer congratulating him of all things, Kel answered; “Yes, ox has successfully given birth to two cubs, they look healthy and we just need to feed them ourselves for a little while and then they will finally develop themselves. If we can make more breeds like this, we could have many chimaeras in no time.”

Wrath smiled, “Excellent, I’m very pleased to hear about this. Keep this up Doctor Tucker; I’m giving you a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and a pay rise. Colonel Grande will be now getting a promotion also, to Brigadier General. I hope you boys continue your good work.”

Kelsen Tucker smiled; he would’ve cheered would it have been appropriate in front of the Fuhrer. “Thank you so much, sir! I’ll make sure the other chimaeras are just as good, if not even better!” He couldn’t believe it; he had been trying for a promotion for a while. He wanted more freedom, more access to books to better his inventions.

“Now,” the Fuhrer started again, “if you can make enough chimaeras, then we may be able to build enough for an army of stronger, better state alchemists to protect us against the countries Xing, Drachma, Creta and Aerugo that seek to destroy us the moment we are weakened.” He turned to Tucker; “How well is Raven doing with his state alchemist training?”

Tucker smiled, pleased to announce; “Raven is doing rather well; he’s able to use his gloves without flashbacks and has memorized the symbol on his gloves too. We will be training him into other basic alchemy just in case, to better his chances, and we will be teaching him hand to hand combat in his chimaera form should he be without his alchemy. We intend to do the same to Edward; he is doing much better than Raven, surprisingly. He was a genius alchemist before he was changed, after all. We need to teach him physical combat, with his chimaera form being so small, it may take some time. But we can’t fail.”

Wrath smiled. “Good, that’s excellent news. I expect training to be slowed now, however, due to the little ones?”

Tucker did nod to confirm, there was no way he could separate the parents from their children whilst they were still very young. “I’m afraid so, sir. I imagine I can train them again within a few weeks time, but only one at a time, so one can look after the children. I imagine the chimaeras may go into hunting for their food again to feed their cubs, we may want to be ready if people notice their pets being killed when that happens.”

It was a good thing that Tucker warned them, as that was exactly what the parents intended to do, the homunculi found out a few days later. They brought in cats, dogs, rats even racoons they could find. The military were soon becoming aware as the days rolled into weeks of mysterious pet deaths and disappearances. Raven and Fox went back into training to protect and fight, but not to fight in a war, but to protect the Fuhrer. The Fuhrer had chosen those two to protect him if an invasion was to happen. The Fuhrer probably didn’t need protecting; he had bested every other alchemist he fought, especially that rogue alchemist Isaac Mcdougle, or Isaac the Freezer. He used to be a state alchemist specialising on water and ice, who went rogue after the Ishbal incident and tried to get his hands on killing the Fuhrer. He failed and died whilst resisting arrest. But because of that incident, the military councils wanted Fuhrer better protected, and so Raven and Fox were put to the job.

Raven was unable to get into the military base, not when he was involved in the Ishbal rebellion, though he was only a Major in that time and not very well known, there were chances that someone would recognise him even after four long years. Edward, however, was safe. He had been barely fourteen when he had been captured, now he was a full grown adult at nineteen when only a year had passed. He was fully suitable to going to Central HQ as a soldier. Even if some may question him on using someone so small and young as a bodyguard, he knew that Edward would be able to handle it. There were more rebels surely to be had to try for the Fuhrer’s life.

Edward hated the uniform as soon as he looked at it. At first, he refused, but the prospect of getting outside, seeing military life and some freedom for a while most days changed his mind. His first day was interesting, to say the least. Bradley showed him around, told him to act more human, try not to be too amazed at everything, the amount of people in Central HQ was amazing. Edward had gotten used to be around people, but this many people he had trouble comprehending, but he tried his best.

The language was hard to get used to. He could no longer talk to people fondly like he used to. He had to talk to people with authority and respect, given that he got in as a state alchemist, known as the Fullmetal Alchemist, he had the same rank as a Major. He learnt quickly from his lessons before turning up and he fit into the world well. Whilst it was true he was only just a Major, he became well known fast as the Fuhrer’s bodyguard. His name outside being Fox Mc. Kindred. It took a while to get used to, but he got used to being called Kindred by those who didn’t know him well. As was normal in the military, so he was told.

He had a weird day after being in the military for a week; he sometimes brought his slightly elder son, Felix, over to Central HQ so that Raven only had to deal with the younger, Brady. Felix could get away with being around the military, still being young he almost looked like a puppy with a flatter tail and a stripe of brown down his back, but otherwise he was almost a month old puppy.

Fox had been carrying Felix, stroking him and keeping him close to his chest like a cherished pet he hoped to fool the military that Felix was when he passed a soldier along the way. Spotting his ranking as Lieutenant Colonel, Fox saluted as he passed, dropping it when the soldier saluted back. He carried on walking, thinking that he was free, until the soldier called him back.

“Major.”

Knowing that he was the only major around, Fox turned around in acknowledgement. “Yes sir?”

That’s when Fox recognised him. It was Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, the man that a lot of soldiers complained was overly proud of his wife and daughter. Fox had never met the man, but he heard he was becoming head of investigations and up for a promotion soon. Nobody complained that he was a bad officer and nobody complained he corrupted his power. Fox figured he was safe enough to talk to.

“Have we met before, major?” The Lieutenant Colonel asked, honestly confused.

Fox answered, consumed as well. “No sir, I don’t believe so. Why do you ask?”

Hughes shook his head, smiling slightly as he noticed the ‘puppy’ that Edward carried. “He is adorable, how old is he now?”

Looking down, Fox smiled fondly at his son, patting his head as Felix panted and wagged his tail. He knew to act more dog like in public quickly, though he was struggling to get some words out of his mouth. “He’s just over a month old now; I can’t leave him on his own yet. Fuhrer Bradley has allowed me to bring him in if I remain working.”

Hughes looked more confused. “Fuhrer Bradley? State your name and status soldier.”

And Maes Hughes was well within his rights to order thanks to his badges. “Major Fox Kindred, sir.” He never used the Mc in his name, he hated it and only used it on official forms, or Wrath did.

“Ah, the Fullmetal Alchemist, I thought I recognised you. Tell me, do you have a brother?”

Fox blinked. “A brother?”

Lieutenant Colonel Hughes nodded, “Yes, I’ve seen someone that looks very similar to you, you might as well have been brothers, only he was a lot younger.”

Fox thought for a moment. How could this soldier think he had a brother? He had been abandoned and saved by Tucker when he was young, transformed into a chimaera, so he was told, to save his life. He would’ve died otherwise. He was told nothing about his family, he assumed they had died whilst he had survived, but if he did have a brother and he had survived… But he couldn’t remember, probably didn’t want to remember.

“No sir, I don’t believe I have one. I only ever remember being a lonely child, sir.” He hugged Felix closer as he said that, feeling protective over the poor kid. Felix licked Fox’s face, trying to comfort him like the good son he was.

Hughes chuckled, scratching the back of his head. “My mistake, being head of investigations you can’t help but speculate.”

Fox smiled. He supposed he was right. It made sense to him, he could imagine becoming paranoid and jumping to conclusions if his job was to figure out puzzles. You’d make puzzles out of nothing. “Okay sir; was there anything else you wanted?”

Maes Hughes shook his head smiling, “That’ll be all major, thanks for your time. Go about your business now.” With a smile, Fox saluted, waited for the salute back before walking away. His expression turned into a frown once he was out of range of Maes Hughes. Whilst he seemed kind enough, he couldn’t help but be cautious. Tucker always told him that his assassins were probably still alive, hence his change of name, could Maes Hughes be one of them? He doubted it, but he could never be too careful.

He never told Raven about it, knowing that Raven would overreact and told him that his son enjoyed his day at work.

…

Maes Hughes had been alert to the sudden death and disappearances of pets and animals as soon as it began. It was bizarre to say the least, but it didn’t take a genius to figure it out. Maes had spoken to witnesses; two homeowners had been home when their pets were snatched from inside their house. They remembered spotting a small blond bear or racoon had broken their pets’ necks and dragged it away. Another witness said they saw a large wolf drag their cat by the tail through the window and run off back into the forest nearby. No wild animal would be able to get inside and out the building that fast or even attempt to get inside the house for food. That meant they were chimaeras.

A yellow bear or racoon and a wolf that walked on two legs, some of his team even went as far as to say a werewolf when they saw the blurred picture. Chimaera seemed more logical. But where did they come from and who made them? To get a werewolf, one had to transmute an ape, or worse, a human. The other chimaera hadn’t seemed human at all, besides having a plat made into what looked like hair rather than fur, but Hughes didn’t put it past someone to do that.

Then there was that Major Fox Kindred. The Fullmetal Alchemist. He had the same plat that the picture of the wolverine chimaera had. Surely, that was a coincidence, but perfectly golden hair was rare to come by. Still, there was no evidence, so he couldn’t do anything about it. But what he could do was his relation with Alphonse Elric. Alphonse who came to him continuously trying to join the military for an unknown reason, but extremely desperate about it. Maes still didn’t know why the kid was so determined to join the military, but it was clear that he was looking for something, looking for something extremely valuable or precious to him. Fox Kindred looked similar to Alphonse Elric, but that could have been a coincidence also. Again, there wasn’t much he could do about it besides asking Alphonse Elric in person what he wanted and why he wanted to join the military. Unfortunately, that would give him the idea that he could join the military.

What else could he do? Fox Kindred had suddenly become Fuhrer King Bradley’s bodyguard as soon as he became a state alchemist and nobody seemed to know when Fox Kindred became a state alchemist and nobody had heard of him before to become important or good enough to become a state alchemist. He didn’t even turn up to any of the exams, so far as Hughes could tell. It was like he became a state alchemist out of the blue, purely for convenience. Who was Fox Kindred?

Maes was looking in the records room for answers, not liking all these coincidences turning up at once. Maes wasn’t tricked by Fox’s words, he knew that wasn’t a puppy or dog that he was holding. No dog looked like that, no dog was that colour and no dog had a flat furry tail like that ‘dog’ did. Maes Hughes wasn’t sure, but he bet his money on that being a baby chimaera. It was unheard of before, no chimaera could stand each other long enough to breed, let alone hold a foetus long enough to give birth to a live chimaera pup, or cub. Roy would’ve been sickened and fascinated at the same time were he still here today.

However, Maes Hughes never found the records of Fox Kindred. It was as if he had never existed. Now he became extremely suspicious, there was no way anyone would be able to even make it into the military without having a record of _something,_ not even a birth certificate existed. Now Maes could easily pull him in for questioning about that, but he was the Fuhrer’s bodyguard, there was no way Maes could even get near him for questioning without getting into some deep trouble. He smelt corruption that ran deep in the military. But there wasn’t anyone he could turn to, nobody he knew high enough that he could ask for help from, or warn them. But that Fox Kindred, how involved was he? Did he realise he was being used or was he involved in everything and knew everything that was happening?

Maes Hughes wasn’t sure, but maybe Alphonse had some answers. It was no coincidence that Alphonse Elric has been trying again and again to get into the military, Maes had caught him stalking around the grounds and he knew that Alphonse lived in Central with Izumi and Sig Curtis, the Curtis Butcher shop’s owners. Hughes could tell Hawkeye, let her know at least what he was going to do, that he suspected bad play in the military. But he didn’t want to worry her either. Still, best to let someone know what he was up to in case he needed someone else to back up the message of what he had found out.

Riza took it about as well as Maes had. She couldn’t believe it, but she didn’t doubt Maes Hughes’ eyes or his investigation findings. She, too, didn’t trust Fox Kindred, even if he was a higher up than her. Maes knew, even if she had a poker face on constantly, that that bothered her. How Fox Mc Kindred could suddenly become a state alchemist out of the blue and became Fuhrer King Bradley’s, the king and more or less leader of the country of Amestris, bodyguard and therefore one of the closest people to him. Fox Kindred, a person that had no record of any description of him in the military records at all. Riza was alarmed. That wasn’t all, but that Maes Hughes suspected that Fox Kindred could be a chimaera was the icing on the cake.

Riza hd doubts about that, but she didn’t question Maes’ assumptions, neither on Fox himself being a chimaera or that the puppy that he carried around with him was a chimaera child. It was proven sometimes impossible for chimaeras to give birth or to even mate properly because they were so deformed and some never had a menstrual cycle. Most never got along long enough to even think about mating, let alone attempt it with their broken bodies, inside and out.

Still. Riza Hawkeye didn’t question and didn’t stop Maes Hughes from doing what he thought was right. He was going to go to visit the Curtis family and have a talk to Alphonse Elric to find out what and why he wanted to join the military to obtain. Not only that, but to also ask if he knew anything about this Chimaera business that had been spreading around Central. If chimaeras were being let loose into the city and the military knew this, or were doing nothing about it, then it was a very serious matter indeed.

With a smile and a salute, Maes Hughes bid Hawkeye goodnight before heading home, eyes searching and paranoid the whole way until he reached the safe haven of his family. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~Blackie


	6. Objective Eliminate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alphonse and Maes finally catch up to Fox and Raven and chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took so long for me to get up on this site! I won't bother you with the reasons why and how and what at all and just let you read on this chapter~
> 
> I'm working on the final chapter still, I have started it at least, but I've decided to end it in the next chapter because I just won't have the time to keep this thing going and it'd be better to end until I have more time on my hands (if I make a sequal, no idea if it will ever happen mind)  
> I hope you enjoy it!

Objective; Elimination

You could say that Alphonse was surprised, for once, when Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes made it to his door, rather than the other way around like it had always been for the past few months. From his face, Alphonse could take a guess that it was rather urgent. Izumi was reluctant to let him in, until Alphonse managed to explain to her that this was the military man that he had been speaking to, trying to get a job in the military to find his brother. He explained this to Izumi, but he hadn’t once told Maes the reason he was working there. The reason: because it was the military that stole his brother away but it was also the military that could give him back.

“Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, sir, what brings you here?” He was polite as he could be considering the situation and the fact that the soldier had denied his request to get into the state alchemist exam. Repeatedly. There must’ve been something extremely important the Lieutenant Colonel wanted to tell him, or needed from him.

“Hello Alphonse, I shouldn’t take up too much of your time, but can we talk?” He asked, then looked at Izumi and Sig. “Um, privately, if we could?”

Izumi wasn’t impressed. “Now, whatever you can say to the boy you can say in front of us, military dog.” She bled the word through her teeth, as if the word were poisonous gas to not be released into the atmosphere.

Alphonse didn’t look like he was going to relent in having a private word with the Colonel, so he acted quickly. “It’s about your request to become a State Alchemist.”

That caught the boy’s attention, as he looked between Hughes and Curtis, then nodded to Curtis; “It’s okay, I need to talk to him anyway.”

It was easy to see that Izumi was overprotective over the boy, Alphonse had been staying over for the past two months, helping them out with stocking for their butcher’s shop in exchange for somewhere to live. Al needed to stay in Central, until he was sure he was old enough to finally join the military to look inside it and find his brother.

Nodding, giving a comforting hand on the shoulder, both Izumi and Sig Curtis went to the butcher’s shop in the mean time to sort out orders.

Maes smiled his thanks before sitting down on a nearby offered seat, Al soon following him. They sat in the living room, a nice comforting and relaxing room to not give the small boy a panic attack. At least, that’s what Maes planned, he later found it unnecessary. Alphonse Elric was not scared at all, he was merely restless and excited to be finally getting somewhere when he had gone nowhere for such a long time.

Maes Hughes didn’t wait around for Alphonse to get too comfortable, before he began; “I do have a proposition for you.”

Alphonse leaned forward in his seat, excited to be finally hearing some good news and getting closer to his goal of finding his brother Edward Elric alive.

“I can’t get you to be a State Alchemist, you’re still so young. BUT,” Hughes puts in quickly before Al could argue. “I can get you into the military in a much more subtle way, but you have to be secretive and you will answer only to me. Does that sound okay?”

Al didn’t need to think. “Yes, please! I don’t care, I just need to get into the military somehow, but I won’t disappoint you, I can assure you!”

Hughes smiled softly, happy to see such enthusiasm from such a small yet already independent child. But he had to wonder, and he needed to know; “Why is it that you _really_ want to join the military so badly, Alphonse? I know that your previous answer was a lie, because you seem to be content to simply getting into the military any way possible. What is so important you would try to lie yourself into the military?”

Alphonse remained sceptical, he wasn’t sure if he could trust Hughes enough to tell him the true reason. His brother was stolen by the military, after all, and he never saw the faces of the attackers, he was knocked out before he got a good luck and it has been a few months since the incident, there was no way he would remember how they would look or sound.

But if he wanted to be fully trusted and have allies to help him in finding Edward, he needed to make some friends and he needed to trust them. It was a risk, either way, but he felt that he could find at least one ally in Lieutenant Maes Hughes.

“My brother, he was kidnapped by some of the military. I don’t know why, I know my brother was a trouble maker and he has a fierce temper and rather short, but he never tried to hurt anyone. We were living in Resembool at the time, just me and my brother. Our father left us when we were young, I don’t remember him but Edward did and our mother died when he was eight and I was seven. We’ve been looking after each other ever since, but one day the military visited our house and took Edward away. They left me behind and I’ve been looking for him ever since. He’s the only family I have left, I just hope…” Alphonse couldn’t continue, didn’t want to know or think of the notion of being the only family member left alive.

Maes Hughes blinked. He hadn’t expected that, a lone brother looking for his other brother in the massive country of Amestris and he went straight to Central, the head of the Amestrian Army. Best place to look if your brother was arrested by the military.

“What is your brother’s name?”

“Edward, his name is Edward Elric.” Alphonse explained; “He has been a prankster and he’s always looked after me, but now I really need to find him and I’m not going back to Resembool until I find him.”

Maes Hughes could not doubt the look in Alphonse’s eyes. The fiery eyes of determination for finding his brother was unparalleled to any eyes he had seen before. But one, Roy Mustang. The late Roy Mustang had eyes like fire when concerning and learning of alchemy. He always bragged about his powers over his fire alchemy and he was determined to rise up in ranks in the military. Dangerous bragging in the Ishbal war. Then he had killed two doctors and ran away, straight into the guns of the Ishballans and was never seen again. He was denounced deceased.

Until now, but Maes had never been able to find him, just that one picture that Fuery managed to obtain one night and then was never able to find him again. Like it was a ghost that came out on film, scared and disappeared.

Coming back to reality, Maes Hughes looked at Al seriously. “I can get you in the military, but I need you to act like a spy for me. You cannot be seen and you need to be conspicuous. I’ve had a few problems with chimaeras in this area, but I can never find them. They’re terrorising the city, but I know the military has something to do with it, I just can’t prove it. My gut instincts tell me it’s them. What I need you to do, is to spy on the military and find out as much as you can about the chimaeras, anything you can at all. Anything suspicious, you report it straight to me. Got it?”

Alphonse beamed, ecstatic to be doing something and getting close to finding out where Edward Elric has gone.

“But,” Maes Hughes continued. “I need you to stay away from two people. Don’t go near The Fuhrer King Bradley, he would have you arrested and deported as a foreigner immediately no matter if you were innocent and Fox Kindred, his bodyguard. He answers directly to the Fuhrer and has the eyes of a true predator. Be careful.”

Alphonse smiled. “I will. So, when do I start?”

…

That was what had set off a chain to an inevitable end. It took some long few years, five to be exact, until Alphonse reached fifteen years of age, before they finally had a break through and the military made a mistake.

Fox Kindred had moments where he didn’t turn up for work for weeks at a time, then was back at work at the Fuhrer’s side for months before disappearing again. It was strange, but nobody questioned it. They assumed Fox just wasn’t stable and was looking after the puppies to work all the time. Maes had a different idea, Fox was still babysitting, but those creatures were a lot more sentient than puppies.

Maes had Fuery keep posted on every single call the now General Grand, there just wasn’t something right with that General. Roy had always hated that soldier, being directly under his command and Maes knew that Grand was the soldier that forced Roy to kill those two doctors they had begun to consider their friends. Maes knew he should have followed Roy, followed him when he knew his best friend was having a nervous breakdown, or worse a panic attack, right in front of him. And he did nothing.

Then Roy ran away and was lost forever.

Grand slipped, getting a call from a mysterious number that Fuery was unable to trace, they had been as careful as they could be these cruel years they had been searching them. There was an emergency in the lab where they made the chimaeras, a rogue chimaera had broken free and they needed an alchemist to destroy it. The scientists were hiding away for their lives until Grand could arrive. He was also told to bring the paper work. What paperwork, Maes didn’t know, but he had to find out.

He contacted Alphonse immediately, who wasn’t that difficult to get a hold of. He still lived with the Curtis family, had told them the situation and they were happy to let him stay as long as he worked in the shop whilst he was unneeded. Most of the time he wasn’t, and so he spent most of the month working in the shop, only being called in twice in that month.

Alphonse was excited to get the work done and he knew what to do.

Grand hurried out of the main building, jogging but not running, no need to cause some stirring where there was none to be had. The longer he took, the more his plans in the lab were being torn by a rogue chimaera. That seemed to happen sometimes, when Tucker makes the mistake of the animal and human being incompatible with each other, resulting in either self-combustion or a rampage. Both souls would compact, conflict and fight each other in a single body that could not fit two single souls. They collided, fought and spat, ripping the body to shreds from the inside if the animal won, a rampage and eventual suicide of the body knowing it was doomed if the human won. Either way, it turned ugly for the poor experiment.

Rushing as he was, he didn’t notice the little boy carrying groceries for his mother running just as quickly as Grand to help his mother out. They collided. A flurry of papers falling like feathers and groceries flying into the air and smacking against the concrete ground had the little boy’s eyes glisten with emerging tears as he quickly got up and bowed to the General.

“Oh my, I’m so, so, sorry sir! I truly didn’t mean to hurt you or bump into you, I- I was just in a hurry to give my grandma her groceries.” The boy explained, he couldn’t have been more than fifteen, “She’s sick, sir. I’m so sorry, here I’ll help you.” Quickly the boy began to pick up some of the General’s papers.

Quickly, flustered, the General got up to his feet and crouched down to pick up his files that had opened up and spilled everywhere. “Not to worry, next time you need to be careful and look where you’re going.” He mumbled more about ‘children these days’, whilst he turned his back and the boy continued to pick up his things.

All his things put away, he grabbed the few remaining files and handed them to Grand when he stood. “I’m so sorry sir, I’ll promise to be much more careful next time.” He bowed again, before clutching the bag of groceries to his chest and running off again. Grand shook his head, looking around for anymore stray pieces of paper. When he found none, he made his way to the labs. Little did he know, the little boy followed, a stray cat looking for more food.

Alphonse stared at the laboratory he saw before him. It was massive and yet it looked abandoned. The windows had all been boarded up and the gate was broken open, rusting and dying. The building itself appeared to be somewhat crumbling slowly, in fifty years it would collapse in itself as the ground moves a tiny bit everyday if not attended to. There was nothing remarkable about this building, and Alphonse could see why. He could see why nobody would have found out before. It was right next to a prison, a prison filled with dangerous, mostly death row criminals to be executed. What better way than to take the death row prisoners and turn them into chimaeras, when there was assuredly nobody to miss them, nobody to question where they had gone when they were going to be killed off anyway?

He hurried towards the nearest phone booth to give Maes Hughes the news.

It didn’t take long for him to arrive with a small team he knew he could depend on to stop this corruption. Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, the sniper and gun specialist. Major Alex Louise Armstrong, The Strong Arm Alchemist, the only other State Alchemist Maes Hughes ever fully trusted. Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc, loyal to his comrades and a strong fighter. Second Lieutenant Heymans Breda, the planner of the gang. Warrant Officer Vato Falman, the walking encyclopaedia, knowing everything there is to know in great detail. Finally, Master Sergeant Kain Fuery, shortened Fuery, the technological one of the group. Topping that, Alphonse Elric, the spy of the group that brought them here in the first place.

Maes surveyed the area. “This is it? It’s not much to look at.”

Alphonse nodded. “That’s what I thought, sir. He’s definitely inside, I managed to follow him all the way, he was too distressed to notice me. Apparently there’s a chimaera on the loose inside so it should be utter chaos inside.”

"What can we expect to find inside, do you have any idea?"

Alphonse shook his head. "No, unfortunately not, I can only guess that they have been making chimaeras from the prisoners of that prison there." He points towards the building that was held the prison that held mostly prisoners that were to be put to death for their crimes.

Maes quickly put the puzzle together, being head of investigations, he was extremely good at problem solving. “Of course, nobody would ever question prisoners going missing but surely there could not have been enough prisoners for them to take without raising too much suspicion, not many prisoners go to this prison for a reason as most don’t tend to get the death penalty. They must be getting other people for their experiments.” At least, that was the observation that Maes was making. There was no way to tell until they arrested the people who were responsible.

This was when Armstrong spoke out loud. “Fear not! I, Armstrong, shall keep the beasts at bay with the muscles that have been passed down the Armstrong family for generations!”

Alphonse looked at Armstrong quizzically, before looking at Maes with a raised eyebrow. Maes shook his head, hoping that Alphonse wouldn’t ask. By some miracle or Alphonse understood what he was asking, he didn’t ask and instead pointed towards the slightly opened gate. “There, that’s how he got inside. But the front door seems to be a bad idea, I’d look for a vent or something to get inside.” He looks towards Armstrong. “I’m not sure about you,” then he looks to Breda, “Or you… can you fit in vents?”

Breda would normally take offense, a fat joke, really? But Alphonse was of higher military status than him, if Alphonse could have properly joined. Maes had explained to all of them that Alphonse whilst not officially a State Alchemist, he might as well be. He looked to Armstrong and saluted to Alphonse. “Sir, we can guard the front gate and make sure nobody tries to escape in the fray.”

A good plan, as long as they could hide well and not fall asleep on the job, as far as Alphonse and Maes were concerned. Nodding, Maes took the lead having gotten used to using stealth to get inside a building. There was no immediately obvious way into the building, however he managed to spot a fairly large vent. He supposed it made sense for a building with chimaeras inside, this would be a quick way in and out for them when they let them loose upon the city. How many of them would be left to terrorise the city, Hughes wasn’t so sure. Picking up the cover and putting it just to the side answered Hughes’ question. There were clear claw marks, as far as Maes was concerned, were made by a sodding bear from the size of them. How a creature that owned claws that size could possibly fit through this vent was beyond Maes and he felt glad that he bought guns with his team, mostly pistols. The addition of an alchemist being with them made him feel safer as alchemists were much better at combat. He wasn’t sure how much combat Alphonse had practised, he had heard that Izumi taught him alchemy and combat in his mission to find Edward, taking four long years of training and still training now, but four years was long enough for him.

Looking through, Maes declared it safe and they began their long crawling session. The vents were lit, shockingly enough for Maes, and so crawling through them become not much of a challenge. It didn’t take long before he heard words echo through the vent. The rest of the group behind him heard it also, instantly quieting their crawling, trying to pay attention to the words.

“…ou made a mistake, coming here.” He couldn’t place the voice, but it was surely male.

“ **YOU? YOU ARE STILL ALIVE? _”_** It was a booming voice that replied back, a hysterically loud voice filled with panic and surprise.

“I have not met you before until today. Now, quieten down, or I will be forced to destroy you.” Maes could have sworn he had heard that voice before, but not for a long, long time. Surely, it couldn’t be…? Crawling faster, he reaches a grate that he could see through, he is careful not to touch it in case he makes too much noise and looks down.

There he saw him. Standing tall and proud in normal civilian everyday garbs that only suited him somewhat, his arm stretched out ready to click and unleash a torrent of flame. Those white gloves, the reason so many envied him so, an angelic white compared to the rest of the room. Black patch of hair on top of his head and a smirk that would have the ladies strip themselves in front of him no matter where he stood.

“ **DON’T TRY TO TRICK ME, ROY MUSTANG.** ” That voice could only have been Zolf Kimbley, the Crimson Alchemist, long thought to have been put to his death for his crimes of treason during Ishbal. But Maes didn’t exactly see Kimbley, instead he saw an anthropomorphic leopard, crouched, its tail swishing back and forth in agitation, completely naked and yet it’s manhood hidden, clearly more animal than human and yet able to speak. He had a slight lisp in his voice where his jaws and teeth were too large to close properly and his claws were out and sharp, eyes more feline but with a hint of humanity behind the eyes desperately fighting to stay in control.

Roy looked confused, but didn’t lower his arm. “I don’t know who this ‘Roy Mustang’ character is, you must have me mistaken for someone else.”

“ **DON’T TRY TO FOOL ME! I KNOW THAT LOOK ANYWHERE, AND THAT GLOVE. I HAD THOUGHT YOU DEAD, MURDERED BY THOSE ISHBALLAN CRETINS.** ” The beast boomed, tail swishing faster, agitated.

Roy blinked, as if it were the first time he had heard that word. Then he scowled, annoyed. “I told you, I have no idea what you are talking about, now calm down and return to Doctor Tucker or else.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Roaring, Kimbley didn’t wait as he leapt towards the alchemist. A click of the fingers and Kimbley was set on fire, screaming and roaring in pain as he quickly backed off patting himself off to put the fire out. He stood again, snarling at Roy who was ready to snap again.

“I’m not afraid to do it again, return to Doctor Tucker or else.”

The animal inside Kimbley was whimpering, knowing that he had met his match whilst the human inside him roared out in anger and pain, wanting to rip the ex-soldier up with his newfound claws. In the end, the animal won out, like was expected and he backed away slowly, turning towards the way he came in time for a few strange characters to appear. One was clearly Doctor Kelsen Tucker, an alchemist Maes was never fond of, the other Maes didn’t recognise, a male with hair like a palm tree was the best Maes could describe the fellow and a few common soldiers that had come to investigate.

Tucker spoke first. “Oh, thank you Raven! I’m so sorry I had to disturb you like this.”

Roy, or apparently ‘Raven’, smiled, way too friendly for the Roy Maes knew. “It’s no problem, doctor. I’m happy to help and keep everyone safe.” He looks back at Kimbley, “Who is this chimaera?”

So, Roy knew about the chimaeras? Was he working with them? Was he brainwashed? More than likely brainwashed, Maes couldn’t imagine Roy approving of what they were doing. “Oh? This is Kimbley, he was a criminal a long time ago and was going to be executed. We brought him here hoping to give him a new life, but his human and animal selves are fighting too much and he is in pain.”

Roy scrunched his nose in worry, “Can you help him? It doesn’t seem fair to keep him alive when he is obviously in so much pain.”

Tucker shook his head, unsure, “I’m not sure, I can try my best to help him, but his mind remembers everything that has happened to him, those crimes he committed and the nightmare in his jail cell.”

“ **YOU LYING LITTLE-”** Kimbley started, then promptly sat back down again as Roy raised his gloved hand up.

“Try your best, doctor, his human side sounds nasty and he could do with a new start to life.” Roy was nothing but honest, strange enough for Maes to notice. He was used to the manipulating Roy Mustang who could will any girl to his bed if he so wished, tongue-tie many military officials and even tricked his own friends. He was a mischievous human being, that Roy Mustang Maes knew, but this one seemed calm and polite. He still had that sense of power about him, stronger now than it used to be, but he appeared to be more open than he used to be. Either that, or Maes was getting worse at reading people, which was simply not possible.

Tucker took Kimbley back with him, the armed guards making sure Kimbley didn’t try anything stupid. Roy turned towards the palm tree lad, who hadn’t spoken a word through the entire affair.

“Envy, what do you want?” Roy seemed a lot more cautious with this person, not quite hostile but definitely not trusting.

So called Envy didn’t seem to care, “Nothing, _dog,_ I was just checking the action.”

Roy snorted, breathed in deeply to retort. Then stopped. He sniffed a few times, then looked at the vent that Maes and his team were hiding in.

“Someone is here!” That might as well have been an intruder alarm. Looking back, Maes caught the very guilty look of Havoc. Damnit, his aftershave! However, as far as Maes could tell, Roy was human, how could he possibly have smelt them?

They didn’t get a chance, as further on in front of Maes the vent exploded like a tiny smoke bomb, combusting and breaking apart. That caused the vent to collapse, the angle making the group slide down it like a pipe and they landed on a heap outside in the open.

“What the- who the hell are you freaks?” Envy shouted, surprised and by the sounds of it, he hated to be surprised. The group quickly scrambled for their guns, flipping quickly to their feet in a defensive position.

“Don’t make any quick moves or anything stupid and keep those hands where I can see them.” This was directed mostly to Roy, how crouched and stuck his hand out about to let loose some flames, when he hesitated spotting the guns. He froze for a moment, a flashback coming to him of gunshots and the desert wind but it was gone before he could define anything definitive. But Raven knew, he recognised this person. Somehow, somewhere, they had met before just now. He couldn’t think why, though.

“You… who are you?” He had to ask, had to know, because now it was a constant pest in the back of his mind, reminding him, plaguing him.

“Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, you lot are under arrest for human transmutation in making human chimaeras.”

“Whoa whoa there.” This was Envy, stepping up as if suddenly waking up to hear the conversation. “Hey, Raven, you recognise these dorks?”

“I… do, but I don’t know where.” Raven looked confused.

“That’s because these are the guys we warned you about that would take you awake. They’re here to take you and Edward away.” Envy smirked, whilst Raven saw it as a smirk of ‘told you so’, Maes saw it as the smirk of victory.

“Edward’s here?” That was the wrong thing for Alphonse to say. In saying that, Roy’s posture tensed, suddenly hostile and agitated. He growled, actually _growled,_ and glared at Alphonse with sudden hatred that shocked Maes. He had never seen Roy act this way, he had seen him angry, but never murderous.

“You want Edward? He snarls, dangerous and deadly. “Well, you can’t have him! He’s mine! I refuse to let you take him and our cubs!”

“Did he just say…?” Havoc whispered.

“Yup, he definitely said cubs.” Falman replied, knowing exactly what cubs were. Puppies, young canine creatures.

“Get. Out. **NOW!** ” Raven roared, eyes flashing another colour, scaring the military officials as well as Alphonse. Envy laughed, turning to make a run for it having left the bait he needed. Putting his hands on the floor, Roy morphed suddenly and violently, clothes ripped to shreds and bones snapping into a different shape as his skin burst into fur and nails lengthened into claws. Then he stood tall, snarling and glaring mainly at Alphonse who had loudly declared he was after Alphonse.

“WEREWOLF!” Havoc, Falman and Fuery screamed, turning and running away screaming werewolf. Maes had forgotten how superstitious these lot were. They had probably run away to find silver bullets. Maes didn’t get long, getting ready to fire his gun when he saw, fast as lightning, Roy leapt at him, claws extended, teeth sharp and eyes gleaming in the dark room. He wasn’t quick enough, he was going to die…!

The floor rose and blocked the way of the claws, protecting Maes’ face. Roy turned, surprised and intimidated to glare at Alphonse, holding out a piece of chalk with a hand on a circle he had drawn to protect his employer.

“ **YOU. YOU’RE AN ALCHEMIST?** ” Roy looked flabbergasted, yet even angrier at the same time, if that was even possible. “ **YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A CHILD.** ”

“And you’re a chimaera, yet here we are both using alchemy.” Alphonse replied, hiding the chalk behind his back, protecting his weapon. “How did you come to use alchemy?”

Roy growled, almost looked like he wasn’t about to answer. Then, perhaps for the humour, he did. “ **I WAS BORN WITH ALCHEMY IN MY BLOOD. I WAS RETRAINED WHEN I WAS RESCUED BY DOCTOR TUCKER. THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN DEFEAT ME.** ” Roy snarled again, vicious and bloodthirsty. “ **YOU WILL NOT TOUCH EDWARD!** ” He leapt again, blinded by rage he didn’t notice Maes bring a gun up and fire. A direct hit to the shoulder, not enough to kill, but enough to stun. That was all Alphonse needed. Pushing his hands to the floor, he transmuted the floor into a cage to hold the werewolf in nicely. He made sure to thicken the cage to prevent the wolf from escaping.

Just in time, as Roy quickly got up to his feet and slashed his claws along the stone cage. Unfortunately, his claws were not very strong compared to his teeth and he merely scraped the stone. The alchemist had probably made sure the stone was durable enough to withstand more than simple force. Snarling, he leapt up, throwing his head through the bars like the deranged animal he was currently being. He could not let these people get away with what they were doing. He could not let them take his mate or his cubs, not when he worked so hard for the last four to five years protecting them and making them a nice home. He was not going to let his hard work be ruined by a child!

At the same time, he cursed himself for losing his temper so easily, in shifting quickly to destroy the human who dared utter Edward’s name, like he loved him more than Raven. Edward made no mention of knowing anyone else, his memory also erased in the chances that the kidnappers would forget about Edward and to help Edward easier than trying to get over his trauma he had.

He knew, however, that Envy was not always known for his honesty. Had he been lying? Or were these the liars, put an image on to easier take Edward away from him and his family? Either way, Rave was not taking a chance, definitely not trusting the child to be near Edward at any time.

Bashing the cage was not the smartest idea Raven ever had. It hurt, whimpering, he gave his nose a chance to breathe, before he opened his eyes again and snarled at the two offenders.

“Roy, please, don’t you remember me?” the tall one in blue uniform, Maes Hughes, pleaded. He sounded desperate, Raven would be tempted to say heart broken.

“ **WHY SHOULD I?** ” He snarled out, tail swishing in agitation.

Maes’ face turned into one of anguish, hurt and yet desperate. A dangerous mix for humans, so Raven was told. “Roy Mustang, don’t give me that! We fought together, remember? In Ishbal? We were best friends, we still are best friends Roy!”

What a pack of lies, Roy thought. There was no way that was true, Doctor Tucker told him so. He had been taken as a war prisoner of sorts, injured and lost, Doctor Tucker took him in and gave him a new life as a chimaera. Whilst it was far from the perfect life that he had wanted, it was close enough to what he wanted. He was happy, he had a family and he had a home. That was all he wanted.

But… there was something else. Didn’t he have a thirst for alchemy once?

No, Edward and his family were what mattered now, his past didn’t matter, only the future. The past only hurt. The sounds of gunshots, the desert wind blowing in his eyes and the need for a cloth over his mouth constantly. Lots of fire and burning and breaking and destruction he never wanted to see again.

In his distress, he shrunk back down to his human form, hands over his head at the painful headache. And like a click, he remembered. That name, Roy Mustang. That was… that was his name! His name! His real name! He knew it. He remembered! And it hurt! He joined the military to try to better the world, make it a safer place. He was taught fire alchemy by Hawkeye, he was went to Ishbal to quell the rebellion that was occurring in the south east, he killed many Ishballans in the city as a last resort unable to stop them rebelling, he killed two doctors who were helping the injured Isballans even when they were his friends, he vomited, he ran away, his mind weary and sick and… he wakes up here. But he knew everything that happened. He wasn’t human.

_Oh my God._ He wasn’t _human._ He wasn’t a man. He was a beast now, a beast that had children, had responsibilities. How did this happen? How did he let himself get caught in the clutches of those men? He remembered what Grand said; “You will do well to follow orders or face the consequences and be forced to fight for our cause.” He hadn’t known what Grand meant at the time, but now he does.

Now he understands.

And Edward! Edward was just a boy when he was taken here! Forced to grow older, forced into parenthood before his human mind was capable. Where was Edward? _Where was he?_

“Maes… Edward, I have to find Edward.” He was surprised words were even able to leave his mouth, the shock to his head waking him up and seeing the world in duel vision, the wolf within him unable to comprehend but agreeing to care about Edward. Both of them needed to find him, protect him. He was in danger.

“Roy, are you okay?” Maes asked, concerned and wary of Roy’s mental health being. He had been lied to and lived a second life for five years, perhaps longer. He would not be surprised to witness Roy having a panic attack or a mental health break down.

But Roy remained stern, looking up with conviction behind his eyes and anger, only not directed towards Hughes. “Never better, now get out of the way.” Shifting again, skin to fur, teeth to jaws, nails to claws. He slipped his head through a small gap, thinking properly now, and clamped his jaws on the cage to break a gap big enough for him to slip through in his human form. Shrinking again, he grabbed Maes by his arm and asked as he ran; “What happened?”

On the other side as Maes explained and woke Roy from his delusions, Alphonse had taken down most of the guards with his alchemy. The bosses around here had already cleared the area, sensing danger and fled before the officials could catch them. _Goddamnit._ Most of the corridors were empty now, most of them fled and left the chimaeras to fend for themselves. Most had died from neglect, some killed in fights, others had escaped and paid no heed to Alphonse, making themselves scarce and retreating out into the streets. They were Armstrong’s and Breda’s problem now.

Something moved in the corner, something small. It was dark, hard to tell for Alphonse to see what it was. Probably another chimaera, but just to be sure. He walked closer, being prepared for anything, but he was not prepared for what he saw.

Going around the corner, he spotted a room. Upon entering, he spotted dark shapes wriggling and some growling. Chimaera offspring! He dared believe his eyes, but there was no denying it. Their shapes were too imperfect to be pedigree, the different colour patches of fur, some of them unable to walk properly from crossbreeding. They all seemed healthy enough, considering the stark differences between the two species that bred together, but why were they left alone?

A snarl above him let him know that they weren’t alone, they were guarded. Drawing a circle quickly on the floor, before turning to face his assailant just as it leapt at him. A stone pillar leapt up from the floor, pushing the animal away from him. He turned quickly to face chimaera, drawing a quick precise alchemical circle and bringing up a spear from the stone floor. He pointed it towards the chimaera, crouching slightly as he assessed the chimaera. It was clearly a chimaera from a human, the fur as too thin to be proper wolverine that he was shaped and too skinny, his jaw was more human than wolverine and he had his human hair on top of his head wrapped in a plait.

Golden hair. He knew that hair anywhere!

Gasping, Alphonse lowered his spear. “Edward? Is that you?”

Ed flinched, surprised at hearing the name when he didn’t know this person that dared to try to take his kits. “Who are you? How did you get my name?”

Alphonse couldn’t believe it, his brother didn’t remember him. All this time, he had been fighting to find his brother, he never expected this. His brother, turned into a chimaera and apparently defending cubs.

Wait.

“Edward, it’s me… I’m your baby brother, don’t you remember me?” He almost wanted to burst into tears, seeing his brother in such a way. There was barely any humanity left in those eyes, running mainly on instinct with very little morality or sense of what is right or wrong.

The wolverine blinked then tilted his head. “No, I don’t remember having a brother… what’s your name?” He seemed more curious now rather than intimidated.

“It’s Alphonse, Alphonse Elric. You’re Edward Elric. You’re my brother, we did alchemy together… we were going to bring our mother back, don’t you remember?”

Edward blinked, shocked having heard this. “My… mother?” He blinked a few more times, caught unawares of this sudden turn of events. He frowned, quite the feat for a wolverine chimaera really, then he stood up on his hind legs, shifting quickly to his human form. Completely naked, of course, which had Alphonse look away trying to be polite. It didn’t bother Edward in the least.

Like a flash, the mere mention of the name Alphonse woke his memory up. He remembered being in his house, hiding away with his brother to get away from the military officials that stormed his house. He was taken away from his brother, knocked unconscious, thrown into a cage and bound to a wolverine. He remembered that he allowed it for Tucker’s family to survive. He could only hope that he had.

Sure, he had turned into a chimaera, he was no longer human and he had lost his mother. But he had found love, he knew it was genuine and not merely because of his animal instincts. Raven took care of him, he cared for him, they raised a family together. He had his own family, even when he was only actually fifteen years old, or sixteen. He couldn’t really remember, he got used to being older, twenty two body wise, whilst his mind was still as a sixteen year old. He was always mature for his age and he always had a fascination with children, he always wanted to be a father (or a mother, in his case). That didn’t freak him out either, he didn’t care that he gave birth, could still give birth, he cared that he had his own family and children he had to look after. Sure, he said he would bring his mother back, because he had nothing but his brother to lose. He has too much to lose now, he could not bear to hurt his children or bear the thought of losing them or he being taken away from his children.

He hoped that Alphonse would agree, Al’s opinion mattered to him. He used to live for nobody but Alphonse and he knew that his brother missed his mother, but he has children to take care of now.

Speaking of…

Edward smiled, looking at his children that were hiding back behind Alphonse but close enough in case their mother needed help. Edward opened his arms, an invitation to his children to get close and hug him. They didn’t hesitate. “Felix, Brady, Poppy, Pippin, Steven and Rebecca.” The cubs that were hiding behind Alphonse slipped under his legs, the four younger ones anyway, whilst the two older ones stepped around Alphonse, still keeping weary eyes on him and sat behind the other cubs.

Edward smiled, petting the two older sons on the head. “Alphonse, this is Felix and Brady. These are my two first sons I had four years ago. And Poppy, Pippin, Steven and Rebecca were my second litter I had about a year and a half ago. I hope you can welcome them and love them like I do.” He looks up at Alphonse, walking past his children, a pat on the head each, and smiles sadly as he stops in front of Alphonse. “I’m sorry, Al, I can’t bring our mother back… my children mean too much to me. They’re my family now, these and Raven.” He stops, frowning and looking behind Alphonse. “Have you seen Raven? You must’ve passed him on the way here.”

It was a lot for Alphonse to take in. First, how there were chimaera cubs in the first place and apparently Edward fathered them. Second that Edward seemed to really care about that Raven character, apparently his real name was Roy so Maes said, when clearly he had been with another chimaera to make cubs. But he could talk it out with his brother later, right now they needed to leave before the criminals returned.

“Yeah, Lieutenant Maes Hughes has him near the entrance, we need to hurry and get out before the scientists and military officials come back and take your children away.”

Edward was about to reply, when there was an explosion in the back of the building. He turns and picks up his two smaller children, Alphonse picking up the two other children whilst the two elder ones kept close to their mother. “Brady, Felix, keep close! We need to run out, follow close by and don’t get lost!” He hurries along, knowing the building won’t last long, making sure his family follows behind as he heads for the vents he knew so well. He didn’t care that he was running naked, it was the least of his problems right now with the building collapsing.

Meeting back up to Maes, Edward tensed at the view of Maes, then instantly relaxes again when he spotted Roy. “Raven! Quickly grab Felix and Brady and let’s get out of here!”

Raven turned; “Edward!” He opened his arms to hug Edward close, as a reassurance that Edward was still okay. “We need to talk when we get safe, but we need to leave. Envy has had it so that this laboratory will self-destruct if we don’t hurry and get out. I remember my past life.”

Edward looks up at him, smiling. “I remember too, but I still love you and our children the same. It doesn’t matter to me what happened, I’m still happy and I’ve got a bigger family thanks to this.” He cuddles close, Pippin and Rebecca squashed between them, before he pulls away. “Let’s go, then we’ll talk.”

Maes has to stop. “Alphonse, who is that? And are those chimaera cubs?”

Alphonse nods, smiling slightly but there was a tinge of sadness in it. “That’s my brother I have been searching for all this time and apparently those are his children, he’s a wolverine chimaera. I’m not really sure how it happened, but I’m sure we’ll find out if we talk.”

Plans set aside for the future, they hurry, bashing the doors open, subtlety thrown out the window amid the explosions, to the outside world. A place where Edward had only seen a few times in his chimaera life, and a place that Roy’s animal side was always wary of from the words of Doctor Tucker. Where the doctor was, he didn’t know. He didn’t care anymore, he was too angry with the doctor and how his life had turned out because he was captured in his moment of weakness.

He looked at Edward and his children. Perhaps it wasn’t so bad, Roy smiled, perhaps it wasn’t so bad. 

 

~Blackie


End file.
